Singapore-based early stage fund TNF Ventures has invested SGD 588K (USD 475K) in MoGi, a mobile wallet app developed by Mobile Media Creations. The Singapore government’s National Research Foundation is a co-investor through the Technology Incubation Scheme.
Available on iPhone and Android for free, MoGi enables users to store virtual pre-paid cards, rewards programs, and discount coupons to over 220 dining, health, retail, and beauty outlets in Singapore. Users can even send gifts to one another. It was launched in October 2012.
While there has been quite a number of apps in Southeast Asia in the mobile loyalty space — Perx, Squiryl, and ChopChop come to mind — none of them have have ventured fully into e-commerce. Zap in the Philippines is making a valiant attempt, but it’s a product more suited to emerging economies.
Lately, the Singapore government has been making a push for NFC, but take-up rate has been slow due to the fact that only a limited number of phones have the technology. MoGi, however, doesn’t rely on NFC and instead has set up its own infrastructure through providing POS terminals and CRMs to merchants.
Although billed as a mobile wallet, MoGi, like all the other apps I mentioned, is also a marketing platform that offers merchants analytics and geo-targeted promotions.
The co-founders of MoGi are CEO Rashad Budeiri, a veteran telecommunications executive, and VP of Sales Stewart Bowers, who has a career that spans the finance, telecoms, and e-commerce sectors.
MoGi’s backer TNF Ventures has been actively making investments in Singapore startups lately. Earlier this month, it pumped USD 500K into Next-5, a video interview software. Last year, it invested similar amounts in TradeHero, a fantasy stock trading game, as well as Flocations, a flight and hotels discovery service.
TNF Ventures has several other investments in the pipeline, which it will disclose in due course.
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