Country Partner for Automated Retail: What We Give and What We Ask

A Bonobo Country Partner is the company that receives, with national exclusivity, the licence to build in its country a partner network of 24/7 stores and vending machines under Flappers, 1Self and uNobo Connect. We provide the complete system. The partner provides its own capital, sales team and technical service, and keeps the exclusivity by meeting annual minimums.

I put it this bluntly because the model is easier to understand through what it exchanges than through what it promises. This article puts both columns on the table: what we give, what we ask and how we choose.

What a Bonobo Country Partner is

We do not sell stores one by one to investors in each country from the outside. We choose one network partner per country and license the whole system, so that it runs on the ground with its own team and people.

That system is the one uRetail has rolled out in Spain: uRetail’s network of more than 200 24/7 stores, plus the 1Self vending machine channel. The licensed brands are Flappers, for 24/7 stores, and 1Self, for machines. What makes them work is uNobo Connect, the operating system for automated 24/7 retail: customers pay with their phone by QR or NFC without installing anything, every unit sends its telemetry, technical support is remote, and we charge no commission on sales.

Exclusivity is what makes the investment worthwhile. Anyone who puts money and years of work into a country needs that country to be theirs. I covered this in more detail in Why We Give a Single Country Partner per Market.

What we provide

The first thing is exclusive technology. uNobo Connect is ours, and only we license it. It is the reason very different profiles choose us: from investors opening 24/7 stores in markets that look saturated to companies looking for a way to sell their own products. Everything else comes with it:

• National exclusivity for Flappers and 1Self, with uNobo as standard on every unit.
• Catalogue and central purchasing, so the partner does not negotiate product from scratch.
• The method for selling stores to investors, as we use it in Spain: advertising, video call, site viability study and a turnkey store with training.
• Websites in the country’s language and a local payment gateway.
• Commercial and technical training, plus level 2 and 3 support for whatever the partner’s technical service cannot solve in the field.
• Launch within 30 days of signing.

None of this can be improvised. What we have learned in Spain by opening stores, getting things wrong and correcting them travels with the licence.

What we ask

We ask for real structure, not enthusiasm. These are the conditions:

• A company in the country with investment capacity from €100,000, covering entry into the programme, initial stock and the launch campaign.
• One or two native-speaking salespeople, plus its own installers and on-site technical service. A store that is down on a Friday night cannot be fixed by video call from another country.
• Its own advertising. The end investor arrives through local advertising, and the partner pays for and manages it.
• A demonstration store or machine open within 90 days. Nobody buys a store from someone who has none to show.
• Minimums to keep the exclusivity: 10 stores or 35 machines in the first year, and 20 stores a year from the second.

The last point is the one most debated and the one I defend most. A network partner’s exclusivity is not inherited: it is earned every year. The minimums are what turn national exclusivity into a commitment from both sides, because whoever holds a whole country also has the obligation to build it, and we have the obligation to give them the system and the support to do so.

What the partner earns

The partner does not get paid for selling a licence and walking away. Income comes from three lines that grow with its network:

• Margin on every store it sells to investors.
• Distributor margin on 1Self machines.
• A share of the uNobo Connect licence for the units in its network.

The figures of this unit economics are in the programme dossier and are detailed in the terms document, after the questionnaire. What I can say upfront is that what the partner keeps depends on what it sells and how it manages its structure (sales team, technicians, advertising, taxes), and that this last part is what decides whether the business is a good one.

Every store also goes through a viability study first that says yes or no, and that study is never skipped.

How we choose: Portugal, 30 November

One company per country. The profile we look for is a vending distributor or importer with its own technical service. The fleet operator is not the main route: its business is maintaining machines, and this one is different, building a network of stores and selling them to investors.

We are starting with Portugal. Applications are open until 30 November 2026. Other European Union and Latin American countries will follow.

Frequently asked questions

Is this opening a store under your brand? No. The partner does not open a single site: it receives the licence to a system for an entire country and builds a partner network, with investors who buy and run each store. What the partner runs is the network, not a shop.

Do you charge commission on each store’s sales? uNobo Connect charges no commission on the end customer’s sales: it is licensed per unit. The financial terms of the licence with the partner are detailed in the terms document.

What happens if I do not reach the minimums? The minimums are the condition for keeping the exclusivity. If they are not met, the exclusivity can be lost. That is why we set them before signing, with figures that can realistically be met.

Can I start if I only run traditional vending today? Yes, if you have your own technical service, investment capacity from €100,000 and want to sell stores to investors. It changes the business more than the technology, and we discuss it before anything else.

If your company fits

The full programme is at bonoboservices.com/partners. If your company is Portuguese and meets what we ask, write to me at info@bonoboservices.com or use the programme form. Tell me what your company runs today, what team it has and what is holding you back.

Román Suárez, Founder of Bonobo Services OÜ