A rewards-based payment platform Twid, raised $12 million to scale its network of merchants and issuers and expand its solution in the South Asian market.

Rakuten Capital led the startup’s Series A round, which also saw participation from Google and existing investors including Sequoia Surge and Beenext.

Twid allows customers to pay at offline and online stores using their existing loyalty and reward points from banks, fintech platforms and e-commerce websites. The Bengaluru-based startup’s partners include online grocer JioMart, pharmacy NetMeds, ticketing platform Yatra and music streamer Gaana.

“The problem has been very simple and quite large across the globe, that people have got rewards from multiple places, but they have primarily been very much like a locked asset,” said Amit Koshal, founder and chief executive of Twid.

Koshal founded Twid with Rishi Batra and Amit Sharma in 2020 to build a network effect platform for the masses. The company claims to have amassed more than 40 million registered users.

Twid brings a “Pay with Rewards” option that is available on the checkout page of an online store or at a retailer to let customers redeem their reward points for their purchases. The reward points, in this case, can come from a list of issuers, and users can pick which loyalty program or reward points they wish to redeem.