TWID raises US $2.5 million in funding led by BEENEXT and Sequoia Capital India’s Surge

2024-04-21 03:14:09 Business

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Bengaluru, 5 July 2021 - TWID (That?s What I Do), a rewards-based payment network, today announced US$2.5 million in funding led by BEENEXT and Surge, a rapid scale-up program by Sequoia Capital India for startups in India and Southeast Asia. The company is headquartered in both Singapore and India.

Ongoing shifts towards e-commerce, digital payments, instant payments and card displacements has seen an exponential increase, especially so since the beginning of the pandemic. Additionally, the adoption of digital technologies among customers has sped up by several years. While loyalty programmes allow customers to accumulate points and redeem them at a later time, the current rewards and loyalty ecosystem worldwide is fragmented and operates in silos.

TWID is a technology platform that aims to solve the worldwide problem with rewards. It brings together different rewards points systems across issuers, and converts the points into a fungible payment instrument, to be used universally across TWID?s network of merchants and brands. These merchants, brands, and even financial institutions ? from startups to large established businesses ? leverage TWID?s fast-growing network to widen their issuer pool and tap into customers who bring their rewards points with them. End-consumers will get to benefit from TWID through greater use of their reward points across a wider range of merchants and will have the flexibility of paying for their purchases with a blend of rewards and cash or credit.

Through the platform, TWID aims to provide reward point issuers with a highly profitable way to engage with their customers, ensure repeatability by enabling them to save more on every purchase, as well as the ability to earn more through each transaction. The checkout process is seamless with consumers being able to see a new checkout option, ?Pay with Rewards?, and have the flexibility to choose which loyalty programme they would like to redeem their points from to make their purchases. TWID makes payments contactless and frictionless because users can now pay with rewards points anywhere.

Challenges with the current system hinders customers and businesses from reaping its true benefits due to its complicated process, with many subscribers not having visibility over the number of points they have.

Co-Founder of TWID, Amit Koshal said, ?At TWID, our mission is to revolutionise the current fragmented and siloed reward points ecosystem, by introducing one platform which unifies these rewards, through a seamless ?one click? experience. Our platform brings back the repeatability and deeper engagement between merchants and brands, and their customers, that these loyalty programmes were originally intended for. With our wide network of issuers, merchants, brands and consumers, TWID injects life and liquidity into the current payments ecosystem, bringing about a greater volume of transactions than before. The value of the network only grows with each additional brand we partner with and we look forward to making the network even more profitable in the near future.?

By working with a large network of online and offline merchants such banks, fintech companies, frequent flier programmes and brick-and-mortar retail stores, the platform turns customers? points into an easy-to-use payment method. In the last six months, TWID has grown quickly, and has managed to simplify a customer?s journey by bringing marquee loyalty programmes together through a unified interface, and has processed over 1 million transactions to-date.

?TWID is creating a completely new network for how we all view rewards. The platform has the same long-term potential as the traditional payment networks we see today. Issuers can convert rewards from liability to income streams while merchants and acquirers can benefit from improved conversion, and are provided with more options at checkout. We certainly look forward to a continued and long-term partnership with TWID?, said Hero Choudhary, Managing Partner of BEENEXT.

?We are excited for our consumers to use ''Pay with Rewards" and in turn be delighted with extra savings. We are constantly innovating our retail businesses, and TWID presents new and valuable opportunities for our consumers?, said Rajendra Kamath CFO, Reliance Retail (Value Formats)

TWID was founded in Bengaluru in October 2020 by Amit Koshal, Amit Sharma and Rishi Batra. Amit Koshal and Amit Sharma both held leadership positions at Intuit, while Rishi led marquee investments at Bennett, Coleman and Company (The Times Group).

The round also saw participation from angel investors Kunal Shah, Rajul Garg and YourNest India.

TWID is part of Surge?s fifth cohort of 23 companies that have developed new digital solutions to help companies and individuals work, live and learn better in a rapidly evolving post-pandemic world.

About TWID

TWID is a rewards points-based payment network connecting customers with merchants to pay with points earned from a Point Issuer Program. The Platform empowers banks, brands, acquirers and customers to make their program completely business viable and employ a contactless payment mode for offline payments or as a checkout option on online merchants using ?Pay with Rewards?.

About Surge

Surge is Sequoia Capital India?s rapid scale-up program for startups in India and Southeast Asia. Surge combines $1 million to $2 million of seed capital with company-building workshops, a global curriculum and support from a community of exceptional mentors and founders. The program?s goal is to supercharge early-stage startups and give founders an unfair advantage, right out of the gate.

About BEENEXT

BEENEXT is a Venture Capital fund managed by serial entrepreneurs that focuses on assisting founders with its operational experience, network, trust, unique perspectives, and the capital. The team invests in early-stage tech start-ups that are focused on building the new digital platforms driven by the data network. BEENEXT aims to establish a platform of founders, by the founders and for the founders across the globe, primarily in South East Asia, India and Japan. Since its establishment in 2015, the team has invested in over 200 companies globally.