Member.id secures Pre-Series A funding

MEMBER.ID, a loyalty service provider and technology firm based out of Jakarta, announced that it has secured an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A funding led by East Ventures, followed by Ace Capital, and angel investors.

The investment will accelerate Member.id’s new product development which supports its mission to change the loyalty landscape in Indonesia.

Member.id chief executive officer and co-founder Marianne Rumantir says, “Many businesses still find managing loyalty programmes and points to be a challenge. We see many loyalty programmes where the users do not even know how to check their points balance let alone redeem it.

“Through a well-designed loyalty programme, we can create a hassle-free customer journey and predict the user behavior to create a much more targeted campaign. We create programmes where users will stay loyal to their brand even when there are no discounts offered, because we focus on creating exceptional experiences and long-term benefits for these users and the businesses.”

Member.id’s newly-developed product will both enhance the consumer experience and enable more businesses to tap into the loyalty landscape.

“We are currently building a consumer-facing product which can be used not only for point management, but also point conversion across rewards programmes. The second product underway is a loyalty product which specifically caters to SME clients.”

It enables the creation of a seamless customer journey, provides analytics to create insights, and CRM campaigns, determines earning and redemption values for each programme, allows for liabilities management, manages external partners as well as points conversion.

For large enterprises, the loyalty solution can be tailored based on the programme design required. For SMEs, Member.id will provide a more affordable plug and play platform.

Marianne tells Digital News Asia that more businesses now understand the need to create long-term loyalty.

“Indonesia has a huge market and we are assisting companies of all sizes from various industries including transportation, hotels, lifestyle, retail, F&B, e-commerce and various tech spaces.”

Member.id has helped one of their clients, Ismaya Group, to grow their customer acquisition by over 1000% in 12 months. The new membership supported by Member.id, enable Ismaya Group to create more emotional and experiential benefits for loyal customers.

Aside from Ismaya, Member.id also serves other hospitality clients including, The Union Group (Union, Benedict, Café Milano), Syah Establishment (Lucy in the Sky, Sofia at the Gunawarman, Hotel Monopoli), Artotel Group. It also has clients from other industries, such as the Djarum Group and a partnership with Garuda Indonesia.

Marianne adds, “The key drivers of our growth will not be just from the total clients we serve but also the total points we issue for our clients.”

The company’s clients mostly come through referrals from the mid-market and large enterprise segment.

“It has been a true testament of our clients’ experiences that we get to acquire clients this way.”

Marianne thinks that the strategy to attract SMEs would be through branding and identifying opportunities through its existing networks and clients.

“We also partner with POS systems since our loyalty solutions work best when they are integrated with direct customer touch points. Synergising with external relevant players is better than going forward by ourselves.”

Member.id also invests in personalised relationship management instead of investing in mass marketing efforts.

East Ventures managing partner Willson Cuaca says, “In Indonesia, there are very few companies that effectively invest in the knowledge of their customer preferences and behaviors, leaving customer loyalty as a myth in the country.

“We believe that Member.id has figured the right approach to help brands construct and execute effective loyalty strategy that delivers optimum benefits for both the company and their individual customers.”

Utilising big data, machine learning, and data sciene

Member.id chief strategy officer Robert Tedja says, “In the advent of big data, machine learning, and data science, the potential of loyalty programmes to create value for both businesses and consumers has amplified exponentially.

“In addition, the birth of the blockchain technology has created exciting possibilities in integrating a silo-ed loyalty landscape and solving inefficiencies in existing loyalty systems. In the near future, we plan to utilise these new technologies to better serve our clients and consumers alike.”

The company built web portals and mobile apps so that users can easily access their membership from anywhere without having to go to a store or customer services counter. These include creating a hassle-free sign up, earning, and redemption processes.

To serve large enterprises, there is the flexibility to customise tech solutions and through open APIs, it can easily be integrated with external systems.

Marianne says that the company aims to launch its SME product and a B2C wallet which will allow users to convert points between loyalty programmes and use their points as currency in the near future.

“We have created these products from our own market research and identifying what companies find to be a challenge when managing programmes and points.”

In terms of challenges, Marianne admits that she faces both external and internal challenges in maintaining the business.

“Externally, the challenge is to help educate the market that being loyal to certain brands requires more than just transactional loyalty. It also needs emotional loyalty.”

Member.id will be launching a new site soon to help educate and provide tips on some of the most attractive programmes in Indonesia and claims to be ‘Indonesia’s First Points-hacking Source’.

“Internally, as the company grows, we have been actively hiring and it could be a challenge in finding the right resources especially when you’re competing with other tech startups.

“Our core values of putting our team first and establishing a collaborative environment has helped build our company’s profile to attract more and better talent.

“We have recruited talent from different sectors including from some of the unicorn startups. We believe our company’s culture has been our strength in ensuring its sustainability.”
Source: https://www.digitalnewsasia.com

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