Twid, a reward point-based payment solutions platform announced its Series-A funding of $12 Mn led by Rakuten Capital. The round also saw participation from Google, ICMG Partners, JAFCO Asia, January Capital, and Reddy Futures Fund with existing investors BEENEXT and Sequoia India’s Surge also participating. The newly raised funds will be used for scaling and building Twid merchant and issuer network, expanding product roll-outs, and building tech capabilities primarily in Data Science and hiring. Previously, Twid has raised capital from marquee investors such as BEENEXT and Sequoia India’s Surge in 2021. With this funding round, Sunil Gopinath, CEO of Rakuten India will join the Twid board of directors on behalf of Rakuten Capital, Rakuten Group’s corporate venture capital arm.
Founded in 2020 by Amit Koshal, Rishi Batra, and Amit Sharma, Twid is a network effect platform that combines multiple loyalty/reward points across issuers such as banks, FinTech firms, and Retail/e-Commerce brands. It allows consumers to pay at offline and online stores with a ‘one-click-checkout’ experience using their reward points. Once on a merchant’s check-out page or at a store, customers will have the option to ‘Pay with Rewards’ and have the flexibility to choose which loyalty program they’d like to redeem their points for their purchase. They will be able to use a combination of points and digital currency, such as their credit card, net banking, or UPI, to complete their purchase. It connects reward point issuers with large merchant networks to enable redeeming points as a form of payment. The company today works with renowned partners such as JioMart, NetMeds, Yatra, Gaana, Wakefit, ConfirmTKT, Ixigo, PAYBACK, InterMiles, IndusInd Bank, large commerce program, PayU, Juspay, and many more.
Amit Koshal, Founder & CEO, Twid said, “Twid is on a mission to revolutionize how rewards are viewed, understood, and used across platforms by creating a completely new network. We are bringing together various industry stakeholders nudging them towards a cashless ecosystem and future. By enabling Reward Points to be Ubiquitous and fungible, we are witnessing very high customer delight. Customers are able to stay updated with their points and are able to save, earn and pay every time when using “Pay with Rewards”. This reaffirms our approach to delivering long-term value to merchants, issuers, and customers.” He further added, “We are happy to have mission-aligned investors who are also helping us with global expertise in technology. This investment will accelerate our next phase of growth, further strengthening our innovations, product, and offerings.”
With over 40 Million registered users, and 50,000+ live merchants, Twid has a payment network of banks, brands, payment gateways, merchants, and customers. Additionally, it provides access to over $2BN in reward points pool with its issuer partners and processes over 5% of digital transactions for many of its marquee merchant partners.
Sunil Gopinath, CEO of Rakuten India said, “Rakuten Capital sees tremendous potential and future synergies in this investment. Given our global membership products are developed here in Bengaluru by Rakuten India, I’m thrilled to join the Twid board of directors and look forward to working with Amit Koshal, Rishi Batra, Amit Sharma, and their very capable team to transform the way reward points are viewed and used in India.”
According to the Q1 2022 Global Loyalty Programs Survey, Loyalty Programs Market is expected to grow by 12.6% on an annual basis to reach US$ 142636.8 million in 2022. A large population, rapid digitalization, and consumers’ inclination toward rewards programs primarily supported the strong market growth in the Asia-Pacific region including India. Thus, enhancing transparency, awareness, and the ease through which consumers can spend loyalty points online could help retailers capture revenue streams that may have become more illiquid than usual.
