The gaming accessories company’s digital payments platform is already available in Malaysia

Razer founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan (Credit: Razer)

Singapore- and US-based gaming accessories company Razer has announced its plans to roll out its digital payments platform, RazerPay, in Singapore in Q1 2019.

In a Facebook post published today, Razer’s Founder and CEO, Min-Liang Tan, cited a lack of “third-party consumer e-payment providers” gaining traction in the country as a reason for its early launch date.

“In respect of Singapore, while we have made strides in moving the country to a cashless economy, for example, SG QR national initiative and PayNow Corporate, we have hardly become a cashless economy,” he wrote.

Razer first outlined its plans to develop a national e-payments system for Singapore exactly one year ago, via a 10-page proposal to the Singapore Prime Minister Office (PMO).

The company said it will commit S$10 million (US$7.34 million) to build this framework and set a target of 1 million e-wallet signups by May 2019.

Also Read: 10 Things you should know about the Singapore startup landscape

Since then, Razer has made several strides in bolstering its digital payments capabilities.

It acquired the remaining stake in Malaysia e-payments platform MOL for US$61 million(it had previously acquired a 34.9 per cent stake in the company).

Then in May, Razer signed a deal with Singapore telecoms conglomerate Singtel to unify their e-payment systems, allowing credits from each system to be transferable between each other.

Last month, Razer partnered with the United Overseas Bank (UOB), allowing its bank customers to top-up their personal e-wallets using Razer Pay as well as allow Razer Pay merchants to process payments.

The same month also saw RazerPay launch in Malaysia, with over 6,000 acceptance points installed in retail and F&B businesses across the country. Razer claimed that RazerPay logged 600,000 sign-ups and over 300,000 cashless transactions within just 8 days.

Though Tan believes there’s a lack of substantial competition among digital e-payment providers, the situation would likely be very different come next year.

Grab is going full throttle with its everyday app ambitions, which will likely drive up adoption of its GrabPay platform; Malaysia-based O2o platform Fave, another competitor, recently clinched a US$20 million funding, allowing it to ramp up its FavePay service, which already has over 3 million users.

Image Credit: RazerPay

 

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