On August 24 2017, celebrity entrepreneur Min-Liang Tan and PM Lee bantered over how Razer was going to launch an e-payment system.
“We will submit [a] proposal in the next 14 days or less, and we expect to assemble a team of some of the best payment engineers and experts in Singapore,” Tan told The Straits Times.
Exactly 14 days later, on 7 September, Tan made true on his word and released a snippet of the proposal on Razerzone.
Oh, and like true Singaporean fashion, we met the 14 day timeline for the proposal….but right at the last minute 😀
— Min-Liang Tan (@minliangtan) September 7, 2017
The $10million Proposal
Rallying behind the country’s push towards a Smart Nation, the San Francisco-based startup’s objective is to the point – to “advance Singapore to a cashless society within 18 months”.
Their solution is two-pronged.
The first is to provide “ongoing feedback, development and advisory support for a Common E-Payment Framework (CEF)”.
The second is to “spearhead support for an e-payment solution” either for an existing system such as Alipay, or their new RazerPay.
In order to achieve this, Razer intends to dedicate $10 million as seed funding for the RazerPay initiative and they intend to roll out RazerPay within 18 months ( deadline 1 May 2019) with at least 1 million e-wallets signed up.
RazerPay would be a cloud-based e-wallet using existing RazerPay technologies, and can take on different forms from a Stored Value Facilities (SVF) card (like an EZ-Link) to a mobile wallet app and more.
RazerPay Jobs
To develop RazerPay, the company “hopes to bring local talents on board” for positions of leadership.
And in line with their “For Singaporeans by Singaporeans” vision, Razer intends for the e-payment advisory board to be 100% Singaporean. They would consist of experts from banking, payment, tech and legal fields.
“We believe that with Singaporeans onboard to lead and execute the RazerPay initiative, we will be able to develop and roll out an e-payment solution that truly addresses the needs of Singaporeans, as opposed to one shoehorned for Singapore by a third-party solution.”
Job opportunities available include:
- Business Unit Lead (VP level)
- Engineering Lead (Director level)
- Engineers (frontend, backend and cloud services)
- Merchant Acquirer Lead (Director level)
- Payment Services Lead
- Regulatory / Legal Aid (Director level)
RazerPay For The Global Singaporean
To be clear, our proposal to implement RazerPay is not to create competition, but to get SG to become a cashless society sooner than later.
— Min-Liang Tan (@minliangtan) September 7, 2017
“We believe [Singapore] will be a phenomenal springboard for the rest of the region’s e-payment evolution.”
“To this end, we envisage Singaporeans being able to travel to various countries with SEA and use their e-wallets seamlessly. Imagine not just a cashless Singapore but a cashless world for Singaporeans.”
PM Lee has yet to respond to the proposal, and we can’t wait to see what he has to say.
Meanwhile, you can read the proposal here.
Featured Image Credit: August Man
