Chhavideep Singh
Source: TechBullion
Financial Payments technology start-up, CHAI is simply a mobile payments app that uses Terra’s blockchain network. The app is focused to give users a seamless effortless payment experience, where you add your bank account, just like any other mainstream payments app and clock to pay. The difference in CHAI as a payment platform is that it’s Terra blockchain works in the background to settle with the merchants and the user gets best-in-class hassle-free experience.
Seoul-based CHAI is a decentralized application that has recently announced to bag USD 60 million in its latest Series B funding round led by Hanhwa Investments and Securities, part of Hanhwa Group- the South-Korean Conglomerate.
The funding round also witnessed participation from SoftBank Ventures Asia, Aarden Partners and SK Networks along with other existing investors.
CHAI is a one of kind platform which uses Application Programming Interface (API) called “I’mport” that allows the user to accept payments from 20 different payment options, as reported by TechCrunch.
The options include payment through digital wallets, debit cards, credit cards, through local payment gateways, wire transfers, PayPal and even carrier billing.
Apart from this, CHAI also offers its own CHAI debit and credit cards which currently has a user base of over 2.5 million in almost one year of launch, since 2019.
CHAI has collected total funding of USD 75 million this year, including USD 15 million that the platform raised in its Series A funding round that was concluded in February.
COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the use of contactless payments and this is not only true for South Korea but in India, the USA and almost every country as well. As reported by TechCrunch, South Korea’s Central Bank released a report that mentioned a 17% hike in the use of contactless payments since COVID-19 began.
CHAI Corporation was founded last year, in 2019 by Daniel Hyunsung Shin and he mentions to have joined the payments market of Korea very late but eventually found its way to offer unique value to its customers. The CHAI Card transactions deduct lower fees than any other debit or credit card and the user is always checking the app about 20 times a day to see new offers and cashbacks on their transactions, he added.
Furthermore, he mentions to have revolutionized the use of plastic cards and digitized the experience to create a better and robust online payments platform.
Lead investor Hanhwa Investment and Securities director SeungYoung Oh said that CHAI has significantly reduced costs with its I’mport platform and will continue to grow into a global financial-tech business.