Indian rewards payment startup’s $2.5m round co-led by Sequoia’s Surge, Beenext

TWID, a rewards-based payment network, announced that it has raised US$2.5 million in a new financing round led by Beenext and Surge, Sequoia Capital India’s accelerator program.

TWID founders (from left) Amit Sharma, Amit Koshal, Rishi Batra / Photo credit: TWID

YourNest Venture Capital, Cred founder Kunal Shah, and Leo Capital’s Rajul Garg also took part in the funding round.

Launched in October 2020, TWID has headquarters in both India and Singapore. Its platform connects banks, fintech firms, and companies that specialize in loyalty or rewards programs with large merchant networks to allow consumers to redeem reward points as a form of payment for both online and offline transactions.

“The platform has the same long-term potential as the traditional payment networks we see today,” said Hero Choudhary, managing partner at Beenext. “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.”

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TWID – short for That’s What I Do – has worked with companies like PayU, the National Payment Corporation of India, IndusInd Bank, JioMart, and TimesPoints, among others. The startup said that more than 1 million transactions had been carried out on the rewards-based platform within the first six months of its launch.

To date, TWID has processed transactions worth over US$1 billion in reward points.