Perx launches sponsored chops, sketches grand plans during Echelon 2012

After a trial run that lasted for months, Perx officially launched its sponsored chops feature at Echelon 2012. It is a new marketing concept in which merchants pay to give users free digital stamps which they can then redeem for rewards.

Perx is a mobile app that acts as a digital wallet for a bevy of loyalty cards — the startup already has over 450 locations under its belt.

(Read: Perx dumped daily deals business to focus on loyalty card app, has no regrets)

Backed by the wealthy Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, the company, fronted by CEO and co-founder Andrew Roth,  painted a picture of where the company is heading towards.  Read more

Perx dumped daily deals business to focus on loyalty card app, has no regrets

Before Perx co-founders Andrew Roth and Jon Sugihara started work on their loyalty card mobile app, which is now the market leader in Singapore, they ran successful daily deals site PLAYhawaii.com. It was on track to generate US$2M in revenue a year.

Based in Hawaii, they expanded their business to Asia, founding Maiplay last year with Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin as an investor and advisor. They launched in Jakarta and Singapore, entering a heated field dominated by Groupon.

However, they dumped their daily deals business within months. They sold PLAYhawaii.com and launched their loyalty card mobile app in October 2011. They’re now based in Singapore.

What sparked the change was their belief that daily deals is a lousy way to acquire loyal customers for merchants. The hunch paid off: At the time of the interview, Perx had close to 40,000 registered users, and about 400 merchants in Singapore, with 10 to 20 new locations each week.

Their partner merchants are not lightweights either. Big brands like Popeyes, Famous Amos, and Dunkin Donuts have come on board. With pole position in the country secured (around!, Pointpal, and Squiryl are competitors), they are now working with a partner to scale their business to other parts of Asia.

“When we call merchants, we really had to tell them not to hang up as we’re not a daily deals company.”

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