Exclusive: TWID set to raise $12 Mn from Rakuten, Google, Surge and others

Rewards-based payment network TWID is in talks with new and existing investors to raise around $12 million in a fresh financing round, according to people aware of the development.

“Rakuten is leading a new round in TWID with participation from existing investors and Google,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity. The Bengaluru and Singapore-based company had raised $2.5 million in funding led by BEENEXT and Sequoia Capital India’s accelerator program Surge in July last year.

It’s worth mentioning that Rakuten Capital, Google, Surge, BEENEXT, January Capital Fund and IMCG Co-creation have already invested around Rs 72 crore or nearly $9.5 million in TWID, according to the company’s regulatory filings in Singapore.

Rakuten has invested Rs 23.6 crore while ICMG co-creation fund and January Capital fund participated with Rs 7.86 crore each.

As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the company has been valued around at $60 million post money. The valuation could vary after the final allotment.

Founded by Amit Koshal, Amit Sharma and Rishi Batra, TWID enables customer reward or loyalty points to be used as a payment instrument. It allows reward point issuers such as banks and fintech firms to connect with large merchant networks to enable redeeming points as a form of payment in both online and offline mode.

The platform has worked with marquee brands like PayU, the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI)’s nth Rewards, IndusInd Bank, Jiomart, and TimesPoint among others.

The company has raised nearly $5 million to date (excluding the new round) from investors including Kunal Shah, Rajul Garg and YourNest India. TWID was a part of Surge’s fifth cohort of 23 companies announced in June last year.

TWID will be another addition to Google’s portfolio. The search giant had recently invested in ProgCap and ShareChat. Previously, it backed Dailyhunt, Open, InMobi’s Glance, Dunzo, Dot, Freshworks, Drivezy, CarDekho, and Practo, among others.

Queries sent to TWID and Rakuten did not elicit an immediate response. We’ll update the post in case they do.