Starbucks China rival Luckin Coffee Inc. on Wednesday announced a move into vending machines, alongside plans to raise a fresh $800 million to continue fueling its breakneck expansion.
Luckin unveiled two lines of vending machines in its latest expansion, one for its coffee products and the other serving cold beverages in partnerships with names like PepsiCo, Nestle and two of China’s biggest dairies. Luckin also disclosed that it had about 4,500 stores at the end of last year, enough to make it China’s biggest coffee chain behind Starbucks’ most recent count of 4,200.