Twid, a leader in rewards-based payment solutions, is redefining the loyalty landscape with groundbreaking initiatives that enhance consumer engagement and drive merchant partnerships. With over 1 lakh merchant partners and a staggering $2.2 billion rewards points pool, Twid is leveraging emerging technologies, innovative products like Reward Mandates, and strategic collaborations, such as its recent partnership with Confirmtkt, to create a seamless experience for users. As the company continues to grow and invest in its offerings all while prioritizing security and user privacy.
Amit Koshal, Co-founder & CEO of Twid shares insightful details on rewards-based payment solutions Twid.
Q1. Given the impressive numbers like 1 lakh+ merchant partners and a $2.2 billion rewards points pool, can you discuss Twid's strategy for expanding its merchant network and partnerships, both domestically and internationally?
With access to over 150 million users, Twid's embedded ecosystem approach addresses the needs of both issuers and merchants. Our partnerships with banks and retailers are fundamental to our growth strategy and the value proposition we offer consumers. Twid has access to a substantial reward points pool, valued at approximately $2.2 billion, through affiliations with leading institutions in banking and non-banking point issuers. In the last two years, Twid's customer share of wallet has witnessed a massive jump from 0.5% to 8%. Our merchant partnerships across sectors like groceries, travel, entertainment, and e-commerce have experienced impressive results — customer conversions up by 5% blended, an increase in higher average order values by 20%, and substantial savings in marketing spend. Issuers being fuel for our growth, we are able to drive not only high profitability to them, but have increased their card spends significantly contributing further to our issuer partners revenue. These performance metrics are helping TWID not only gain share with existing partners but also increase the width of new partners in our network. Aligning business goals with profitability for all stakeholders, we aim to achieve significant scale within India before expanding globally.
Q2. Could you elaborate on the advantages of the newly launched Reward Mandates by Twid and how they benefit consumers and businesses?
Our newly launched Reward Mandates are set to revolutionize subscription payment setups by integrating rewards into recurring transactions. This industry-first solution addresses a key gap in traditional subscription systems by automatically applying rewards to every recurring payment. We anticipate a 15%-20% reduction in payment failures through this innovation. For merchants, Reward Mandates are expected to increase subscription conversions by at least 12% and reduce churn rates by 15-20%. This could potentially boost the lifetime value of customers by up to three times. The system supports auto-pay setups for OTT platforms, utility bills, and insurance, delivering cost savings for consumers and helping merchants offset the financial burden of subscription offers.
Q3. How does Twid plan to leverage emerging technologies like artificial intelligence?
At Twid, we're always enthusiastic about leveraging emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to drive innovation and enhance our services. Our core focus is on leveraging these technologies to deliver a more personalized and seamless customer experience. By implementing advanced AI and ML models, we're enhancing customer support, optimizing savings, introducing new product features, and improving fraud detection. These innovations will enable us to analyze customer data, spending habits, and preferences more effectively, allowing us to provide tailored, intelligent recommendations that maximize rewards and savings with every transaction.
Q4. What are the potential challenges and opportunities in the travel and hospitality industry, where loyalty programs play a crucial role in customer acquisition and retention?
The travel and hospitality industry presents both challenges and opportunities for loyalty programs. As a sector with high ticket sizes but low product differentiation and margins, loyalty plays a critical role. The sector has evolved from Frequent Flier Programs to coalition initiatives offering benefits like lounges and hotel rooms. While standing out in a competitive market is challenging, there’s significant potential to drive transactions through loyalty. As the focus shifts to creating experiences for high-paying customers, Twid is poised to enhance this evolution by enabling seamless reward redemption and boosting customer engagement in travel.
Q5. In what ways do reward networks like Twid empower brands to foster deeper customer engagement?
Twid's reward network enhances customer engagement with a unified loyalty program platform. Our "Pay with Rewards" feature has boosted customer conversions by over 5% for merchants, allowing customers to seamlessly use rewards as currency without fragmentation or expiration. This innovation has led to an average 20% increase in average order value, significantly elevating the value of loyalty programs. Moreover, our platform offers brands insights into consumer preferences, enabling tailored offerings and personalized experiences while saving 10- 15% in brand spending.
Q6. With Twid’s network growing to over 1 lakh merchants, could you provide insights into your recent partnership with Confirmtkt and highlight its key features?
Our recent partnership with Confirmtkt is an exciting development in expanding Twid's network. It represents an important step in our mission to make reward points a truly universal currency. Through this collaboration, Confirmtkt users can now seamlessly redeem reward points for travel bookings, driving double-digit savings and improving transaction success rates. This integration simplifies the travel booking process, enhancing convenience and efficiency for users.
In addition, we’ve extended the partnership to confirmtkt’s platforms—covering trains, flights, and hotels—allowing customers to benefit from our rewards-based payment solution across a broader range of travel services. This collaboration highlights the potential of leveraging reward points beyond traditional redemption avenues, offering greater value to both customers and merchants.
Q7. How does TWID ensure security and privacy for users?
At Twid, user security and privacy are our top priorities. As a PCI-DSS and ISO 27001 certified company, we adhere to strict standards for handling customer data. We employ advanced encryption, regular security audits, and multi-factor authentication to protect user data flow and ensure transaction integrity. Using our deep API integrations, the data flows to and fro, however we do not store user data. . We also utilize AWS Key Management Service for secure encryption key management, adding an additional layer of protection.
Q8. What are the future plans for TWID expansion?
The strategic allocation of our recent seed funding of $12 million from industry giants like Google and Rakuten has enabled us to achieve significant progress in the last 12 months, tripling our headcount and quadrupling our merchant acceptance ecosystem. We're now investing heavily in data analytics, consumer personalization products, and newer technologies to enhance our service offerings. While we recognize the true value of a network lies in global operations, our current focus is on achieving substantial scale within India before considering international expansion. We're committed to continually improving our platform to drive greater value for users and partners alike.
