Razer Fintech experienced unprecedented growth of 114.3% YoY in H1 2020, processing US$1.8 billion in total payment value
Razer Fintech, the fintech arm of global gaming giant Razer Inc, has entered into a strategic partnership with Singaporean lifestyle marketing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform Perx Technologies, to transform its neobanking experience through gamification, Perx announced in a press release today.
The partnership will allow Razer Fintech to deliver dynamic and personalized user experiences for its digital and mobile platforms by adding gaming principles to neobanking services, the statement noted.
A neobank is different from a digital bank, and exists solely online without any physical branches.
The partnership will also help further Razor Fintech’s aim to build the world’s first youth bank, by redefining the traditional banking experience for youths and millennials, the statement added.
Since its inception in April 2018, Razer Fintech has grown to become one of the largest offline to online digital payment networks in emerging markets and has processed over billions of dollars in total payment value (TPV), the company claims.
Razer Fintech operates two verticals, Razer Merchant Services (RMS) and Razer Pay. RMS is a business-to-business (B2C) solution, whose online service comprises a card processing gateway that offers over 110 payment methods, while its offline payment network has over 1 million physical acceptance points across Southeast Asia (SEA), says the company.
Moreover, RMS Offline extends point-of-sale services like bill payments, cash-over-counter services including Razer Pay top-ups and fulfillment of e-commerce purchases, distribution of third-party point-of-sale activation (POSA) cards, and merchant acquiring services for Razerpay and other third-party e-wallets.
Razer Pay, on the other hand, is a youth and millennial targeted e-wallet that enables users to pay retailers, transfer funds and top up cash through a single platform designed for the youths and underbanked. It is currently available in Malaysia and Singapore.
According to the press release, the integration of gaming elements and principles into the transaction-oriented traditional banking industry will enable Razer Fintech customers to experience a seamless digital lifestyle that rewards every action.
“This strategic partnership with Perx will enable us to deliver the same world-class experience millions of Razer customers are used to, in an industry like banking that beckons to be redefined,” said Razer Fintech CTO Eduard Fabian.
Founded in 2011, Perx leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to target customers, and helps enterprises deliver meaningful customer engagements through personalized, interactive and revenue-generating gamified campaigns that reward customer actions.
The Perx platform also uses relevant business KPIs to monitor the effectiveness of the customer engagement campaigns to drive revenue growth in real time, the statement said.
With the help of Perx, Razer will offer instant gratification rewards and mechanisms that are especially designed to proactively and continuously engage youths in the neobanking experience, the statement added.
As a digital-native and mobile-first fintech company, Razer Fintech prioritizes solutions that can be speedily deployed and scaled for rapid growth, the press release stated.
It added that the Perx platform’s highly scalable API-based architecture and its rapid scalability will enable Razer Fintech to seamlessly implement and manage both technical and customer engagement related changes.
Perx Technologies CEO Anna Gong said, “With the world’s commerce [being] heavily dictated by the consumer’s smartphone, it’s becoming increasingly harder for brands to shift from building transient and transactional to long-standing meaningful relationships with consumers.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Razer Fintech in enabling them to reinvent banking traditions and to back their ambitious goal of building the world’s first youth bank,” she added.
Driven by an increase in merchant onboarding, online shopping and digital entertainment consumption, Razer beat expectations and reported record high revenue of $447.5 million for the first half of 2020, according to a press release in August.
The statement added that its fintech arm alone generated $1.8 billion in TPV in H1 2020, compared to $2.1 billion generated last year, representing a phenomenal increase of 114.3% year-on-year.
“Continuously engaging our customers through regional and global challenges have played a key role in the strong following Razer enjoys globally,” said Fabian. “We are happy to support Perx, a homegrown startup, and we look forward to expanding the Perx platform regionally and globally as we continue to grow our business in new geographies.”
A study by Bain, Temasek and Google forecasts that digital financial services will grow more than three times and generate at least $38 billion of annual revenue across SEA by 2025, compared to $11 billion in 2019.
The study also states that over 70% of the adult population across the region is either unbanked or underbanked, which provides ample scope of growth for fintech startups in the region like Razer Fintech.
Moreover, digital payments is the strongest segment and is expected to cross transaction value of $1 trillion across SEA by 2025, the report says. It added that the region’s high smartphone penetration has driven the adoption of digital services, and digital payments and remittances are expected to reach inflection points by 2025.
However, despite the scope and opportunity and the high competition, SEA’s fintech landscape is still highly fragmented, and consumer tech platforms like Razer Fintech are likely to win in the long term than pure-play fintech startups.
Additionally, according to a PwC report, the global neobank market is expected to grow at a remarkable rate of almost 46.5% CAGR to generate around $394.6 billion by 2026.
The growth potential of neobanks lies in its increasing adoption among millennials, micro, small and medium enterprises, their embracing of innovative technologies, and rising consumerism, the report adds.
Header image courtesy of Perx Technologies
