Funding for SG fintech players hits a high in 2022

In The Top Up this week, we zero in on Singapore, specifically its growing fintech sector and a new rewards club, Yuu. [Read from your browser]( The Top Up 💵 Welcome to The Top Up! Delivered every Wednesday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in fintech. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by [registering here](. Written by Melissa Goh Fintech Journalist Hello {NAME} New year, new start. For me, that means clearing out a pile of old receipts and other miscellanea in my wallet, like that birthday voucher I never got around to using. One thing that I no longer carry around, however, is loyalty stamp cards - printed ones, that is. That’s because they’ve been replaced by loyalty apps, and consumers now have to download one for every retailer or F&B establishment they frequent. So really, we’ve just exchanged wallet space for megabytes in our phones. But could a rewards club that recently landed in Singapore change that? In this week’s Hot Take, I discuss a new digital loyalty program called Yuu. It was launched by Minden.ai, a tech venture founded by Temasek and supermarket operator DFI Group. Yuu has partnered with household names like DBS Bank, Breadtalk Group, and Singtel, allowing consumers to use it at over 1,000 places at the onset. That could explain why the app had over 800,000 registered users as of December, less than three months after its rollout. But more importantly, Yuu does away with a major albeit first-world inconvenience: juggling multiple rewards apps. Also in the spirit of the new year, our Big Story this week brings you up to speed with Singapore’s key fintech players and trends in our signature landscape map format. Given the proliferation of negative headlines about tech in the second half of 2022, it may be surprising that as a whole, the fintech sector hit a record in deal value and count last year. – Melissa  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIG STORIES 1️⃣ [The key players in Singapore’s thriving fintech space (update)]( In 2022, funding for fintech startups in Singapore reached a peak of 85 deals, amounting to US$2.31 billion. 2️⃣ [From build to scale: Tonik Bank eyes unit profitability in 2023]( The Sequoia India-backed company has been on a building spree for the past two years, but this year will be all about bringing those products to maturity.  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE HOT TAKE Do Yuu really need another rewards program? Here’s what happened: - Last October, Minden.ai launched Yuu Rewards Club, which allows users to earn perks at 1,000 outlets of over 10 brands. - Minden.ai is a tech venture founded by Temasek in partnership with DFI Retail Group and coalition partners BreadTalk Group, DBS Bank, PAssion Card, Mandai Wildlife Group, and Singtel. - Users can earn rewards from brands like Cold Storage, Giant, Guardian Health & Beauty, 7-Eleven, BreadTalk, Singapore Zoo, and Singtel. Here’s our take: Nothing unites Singapore quite like Gurmit Singh donning his Phua Chu Kang persona. When SARS hit, the comedian fronted a national health ad on best hygiene practices, complete with a catchy tune. Years later, he [did the same]( when Covid-19 struck. So when he performed a song and dance to the tune of [Nobody]( by K-pop group Wonder Girls for Yuu’s launch, the ad made Yuu sound like a government-initiated, national rewards program. (It isn’t). Intended or not, it’s also natural to think that way, considering the number of brands and sectors in Yuu’s program. This means Yuu has a decent acceptance network right off the bat. Unlike individual brands with a limited number of touchpoints, consumers can rack up Yuu points at over 1,000 outlets of these household names and redeem them for cash vouchers, free gifts, or coupons. At its launch in October, Minden.ai CEO Sng Ren Yeong said Yuu would “set a new standard for loyalty programs in Singapore.” Given its features, it just might do that. As an integrated app that works across dozens of merchants, Yuu addresses gripes like keeping (or losing) a physical stamp card or managing multiple loyalty apps. The average Singaporean, after all, uses nine different loyalty programs, according to a survey of 1,000 people. It’s unclear what the revenue model for Yuu is. (We asked the company for comment, but it couldn’t respond to our request in time for publication.) Brands could be paying a subscription fee to offer Yuu to their customers, with the flexibility of designing its own rewards program, whether in the form of discounts or free gifts. It might also be a launchpad for other Minden.ai products. After all, the company calls itself a platform that increases “engagement, loyalty, and growth” for brands and consumers via machine learning and AI. While it’s unclear how ML or AI applications were used in the development of Yuu, data gleaned from shopping behavior on Yuu could feed into the creation of other products over time. Ultimately, a rewards program like Yuu is an option for firms rethinking the brand-customer relationship, especially at a time when cashback-led solutions are [costly]( but generate little return. For instance, Alipay+ D Store makes it easier for merchants to offer loyalty programs on their digital stores while tying that in with payments and ordering. Brands that use the service, which was launched by Ant Group in late 2022, can bypass the time-consuming and expensive process of building their own apps, especially since traction is not guaranteed. See also: [Behind Ant Group’s revived SEA ambitions]( Bargain hunters will likely cheer the addition of yet another loyalty program to the mix. But whether that’s enough to build customer loyalty in the long run is a whole other question. For Yuu, though, its market entry could not have been better timed. Singapore consumers have become more watchful of their spending after a 1% increase in government and sales tax (GST) took effect on January 1 - that’s amid a looming recession and a general inflationary environment. Indeed, Yuu had over 800,000 registered users as of December, less than three months after its launch. – Melissa --------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW Also check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of the fintech scene [here](. 1️⃣ [Grab inks partnership with ZaloPay in Vietnam]( ZaloPay can now be used as a payment method for Grab Vietnam’s services including transport, food, grocery, and parcel delivery. 2️⃣ [Jack Ma to give up control of Ant Group]( , Over two years after a botched IPO, the company is offering independent voting rights to 10 individuals as part of a major restructuring effort to appease regulators. 3️⃣ [India’s KreditBee adds US$100m to its series D]( KreditBee, which provides tech-enabled personal loans to working professionals, claims it has 3 million active loan customers. 4️⃣ [MAS awards major payment institution license to PayerMax unit]( The license allows PayerMax to offer services such as cross-border and domestic money transfers as well as merchant acquisition services in Singapore. 5️⃣ [Ex-Ovo execs’ insurtech firm pivots to project management, lending]( Unsatisfactory growth in the insurtech space prompted Aigis to pivot to a platform called Finnix, which targets “creative entrepreneurs.”  --------------------------------------------------------------- That’s it for this edition - we hope you liked it! Do also check out previous issues of the newsletter [here](. Not your cup of tea? You can unsubscribe from this newsletter by going to your “edit profile” page and choosing that option in our preferences center. In the meantime, if you have any feedback or ideas, feel free to get in touch with Terence, our editor-in-chief, at terence@techinasia.com. See you next week! P.S. Don't miss out on the biggest tech news and analysis. Add newsletter@techinasia.com to your address book, contacts, or safe sender list. Or simply move us into your inbox. Too many emails? Switch to a different frequency or get new content through our [preference center]( or [unsubscribe](. You can also break our hearts and remove yourself from all Tech in Asia emails over [here](  Copyright © 2023 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 63 Robinson Road, Singapore 068894