Reaching Pre-Series A Funding, Member.id Prepares Blockchain-Based "Loyalty Wallet" in Early 2019

Member.id announced the acquisition of an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A funding. In his official statement, this funding acquisition was led by East Ventures, followed by Ace Capital, and several companies angel investors who cannot be named.

In accordance with its commitment, the funds will be used to accelerate the development of new products to improve customer experience and open more business opportunities in the Indonesian loyalty industry.

Member.id Chief Strategy Officer Robert Tedja said, the presence of big data, machine learningand data science now has great potential in creating more value for businesses and consumers through a strong loyalty program.

"Moreover, the emergence of blockchain has opened up great opportunities in integrating the loyalty landscape and reducing inefficiencies in the existing loyalty system," said Robert.

Managing Partner of East Ventures Willson Cuaca added, only a few companies in Indonesia whose investment is effective to determine consumer behavior preferences. This is also what makes consumer loyalty only a myth in Indonesia.

"We believe Member.id has thought of the right approach to help brands construct and execute effective loyalty strategies for more optimum benefits for companies and individuals," he said.

As planned, Member.id will expand its business to Business-to-consumer (B2C) by launching a product e-wallet blockchain based.

Not just e-wallet, Co-Founder and CEO Member.id Marianne Rumantir to DailySocial disclosing this product will serve as a wallet for collecting loyalty points that customers collect. These points can even be “currencybecause it can be directly exchanged.

“Users can redeem and track the points they collect from all transactions, want it points from airline, e-commerce, or travel. They can also transfer or convert loyalty points from different merchants,” said Marianne.

According to Marianne, currently Indonesia still lacks information on how to check and redeem points. He considered that currently there is no such application in Indonesia. He claims this product will be "loyalty walletThe first in Southeast Asia.

Interestingly, wallet it will use blockchain technology to support the verification process and restore information when a user makes a transfer or convert points to other merchants. This technology was chosen because it is efficient and can reduce the potential for manipulation of customer points.

"For example, I want to transfer points from Garuda to Citibank, it may take five days. The verification is taking too long. The process is long because the banks are not connected to each other host-to-host-his. With blockchain, the process can be more real-time and safer," he explained.

The business model is that every transaction will be charged fee. Meanwhile, his party is still doing product development. It targets wallet it is commercially available in early 2019.

Currently Member.id's service portfolio is still Business-to-Business (B2B). Member.id created (design), develop (build), and manage (operate) loyalty program of the client company.

Various companies handled by Member.id also vary, ranging from medium to large scale companies with long-term agreements of 3-5 years. To date, Member.id's total transactions have now reached more than 45 million points.

“Now we also attract a lot of [clients] from small-medium enterprise because they consider customer loyalty important for all sizes of businesses. And this can be achieved by having the right loyalty program,” added Marianne.

Launch a loyalty program education site

Furthermore, Marianne revealed that the biggest challenge in running this business lies in market education. According to him, currently many Indonesian people do not know or understand the benefits and how the customer loyalty program works.

“Our solution is to help create tools and resources to educate the public. That's why we launched a website that we say will become Indonesia's first points-hacking source, "he said.

Anyone can contribute to writing on the site. Not only writing tips to get points, they can also provide single tips from any merchant, such as credit card issuers and banking in Indonesia.

In other words, this site will be the first site in Indonesia that provides comprehensive information on how to earn, collect, and redeem points from various merchants, from banking, aviation, e-commerce, to travel service providers.

“On the internet, there is no (site) that provides complete information like this. Usually to find out, customers have to call customer service. So long and inefficient,” said Marianne.

Until now, Member.id has managed loyalty programs for a number of companies, including Ismaya Group, Djarum Group, Garuda Indonesia, The Union Group, Syah Establishment, Hotel Monopoli, to Artotel Group.