In this edition of Weekly Focus APAC: Gojek Singapore Marks First Year With Trans-Cab Deal; StarHub Unveils Customer Loyalty Programme on Perx; AUB Enables Cross-Border QR Payment Between Singapore & Philippines; and Singapore Fintech Firm Raises £75m in Series C.

Gojek Singapore Marks First Year With Trans-Cab Deal

The ride-sharing app has inked a partnership in Singapore to offer more than 3,000 Trans-Cab Services taxi drivers access to its booking platform, giving passengers the option to pay for trips on a flat-fare basis.

The agreement also would enable Trans-Cab drivers to have the same driver benefits as Gojek driver-partners.

The new partnership marked the Indonesian ride-sharing operator's first year in Singapore, where it processed 20 million completed trips in the past six months. It handled an addition 10 million completed rides in the first six months after it launched on November 29 last year.

In fact, Singapore now is Gojek's second-largest transport market after its domestic market in terms of transaction value. The ride-sharing company offers a range of services including food delivery, logistics, and payments across 207 cities in five Southeast Asian markets.

As of June, its app clocked more than 155 million downloads and its ecosystems included 2 million registered driver-partners, more than 500,000 merchant-partners, and 60,000 service providers.

Gojek's co-CEO Andre Soelistyo said: "We have grown from an Indonesian movement into a Southeast Asian one, with Singapore forming an important spoke in our international growth. We completed 30 million trips here since we launched exactly one year ago... I believe next year will be even bigger for us as we focus on enhancing our offering in our second year in Singapore."

Trans-Cab CEO Teo Kiang Ang added that the partnership agreement would explore providing joint benefits for both its cab drivers and Gojek partner-drivers, including preferential home electricity rates by Union Energy, which is the holding company of Trans-Cab.

StarHub Unveils Customer Loyalty Programme on Perx

The Singapore telco has unveiled its new StarHub Rewards online loyalty programme as part of efforts to offer richer customer engagement.

Integrated with its mobile app, the loyalty scheme offers instant rewards, a simplified enrolment process as well as gamification features, StarHub said. It also will be able to deliver messages customised for individual customers, such as during their birthdays or special occasions.

The programme is offered through a partnership with customer data and loyalty platform, Perx Technologies.

Its CEO Anna Gong said: "Digital transformation is in its truest form when it touches people in their daily lives, however, it is becoming increasingly harder for brands to establish these moments with consumers. Today's digitally-savvy customers consume content fluidly across multiple devices and channels, to shop, browse, and transact. As a result, they are bombarded with hundreds of static and impersonal promotions each day.

"To this end, we are thrilled to be StarHub's solution of choice to drive meaningful data-driven digital customer experiences," Gong said.

AUB Enables Cross-Border QR Payment Between Singapore & Philippines

The Philippines' Asia United Bank (AUB) has inked a partnership with Singapore-headquartered Liquid Group to enable QR payments between the two countries.

The agreement would enable local merchants to process QR payments apps supported by Liquid Group and its partners using the AUB PayMate app. This "all-in-one cashier" tool would enable e-wallet payments to be processed via a mobile app, web portal, and an API (application programming interface).

The deployment of Liquid Group's cross-border QR payment platform encompassed an ecosystem of merchants across various industries including retail, food and beverages, and entertainment in Manila and the country's other tourist destinations.

Participating merchants would be able to accept mobile payments from tourists and Singapore visitors in the Philippines could use their preferred local QR apps to make digital payments in the country.

Singapore Fintech Firm Raises £75m in Series C

Singapore-based FinAccel has snagged US$90m (£75m) in its Series C round and will be tapping the funds to support its expansion efforts in Indonesia and the region.

The latest funds would push its total capital raised this year to more than US$200m (£155.36m). The Series C round was led by Square Peg and Asia Growth Fund, which is a joint venture between Mirae Asset and Naver.

FinAccel facilitates checkout processes for several major Indonesian e-commerce merchants, clocking annual transaction value growth rate that is more than 300%.

The fintech firm, which launched three years go, said it had evaluated more than 3 million applications, disbursed just under 30 million loans, and created one of Indonesia's largest credit-based payment platforms for e-commerce.