Razer Inc, the global gaming hardware manufacturing company based in Singapore and America, has announced a partnership with Visa with the aim of developing a Visa digital prepaid card.
Available as a mini-program included in the Razer Pay app, this collaborative undertaking would allow for easy top up and cash out for people who don’t have access to the services of a bank or any other financial organization, especially in Southeast Asia. This would mean that Razer’s around 60 million registered users would be able to carry out transactions at any of the 54 million merchant locations that accept Visa worldwide.
Along with the virtual prepaid service, a physical prepaid card might also be on the tables, as indicated by Razer’s chief strategy officer Li Meng Lee.
In the recent years, Razer seems to have put much effort into financial technology which was evident in its acquisition of MOL Global. This company offers online and offline payments in Southeast Asia, back in early 2018.
Internet services like Lazada and Grab, and offline retailers like 7-Eleven and Starbucks, allow transactions through the Razer Pay app.
For many years, the people who have been making digital payments before it became a sexy word in the last couple of years… [many of them] are the gamers who go to a 7-Eleven, pay in cash, and get a pin code to buy virtual skins for the games… Because of that, we’ve been able to build up more than a million service points across Southeast Asia. – Li Meng Lee, Razer’s chief strategy officer
Moreover, Razer Pay claimed that it processed over $1.4 billion in payment value in 2018.
What makes Razer’s prepaid service stand out from many other e-wallet services is that customers paying at Visa merchants using the Razer Pay app don’t have to own a bank account already.
Having launched Razer Pay in Malaysia and Singapore just a few months back, the service will soon be available in the rest of Southeast Asia along with the Visa prepaid mini app.
This collaboration with Razer might extend the reach of Visa into Southeast Asian countries which are occupied by over 200 million millennials and youths.
This is a great opportunity for us to be working with Razer in addressing how we work to bring the unbanked and underserved population into the financial system… We will be doing some work with Razer on financial literacy and financial planning to bring that education to the population across the region. – Chris Clark, Visa’s regional president for the Asia Pacific
Razer furthermore plans to go into other microfinance services such as lending and insurance.
