Rewards-based payment network TWID raises $2.5 mn led by BEENEXT, Surge

TWID (That’s What I Do), a rewards-based payment network, has raised $2.5 million in funding led by BEENEXT and Surge, a rapid scale-up programme by Sequoia Capital India for startups in India and Southeast Asia. The company is headquartered in both Singapore and India. 

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

Ongoing shifts towards e-commerce, digital payments, instant payments and card displacements have seen an exponential increase, especially so since the beginning of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) 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 date, 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. 

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.”  

Through the platform, TWID aims to provide reward point issuers with a 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.

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, 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).

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.