StoreHub secures undisclosed investment from ShardLab to explore new payments and rewards offerings

• Processes over 200mil transactions annually, representing about US$3.5bil in annual transaction value
• Operates across more than 20k merchant locations in Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Japan

StoreHub, a Southeast Asian commerce and payments platforms based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has received a strategic investment from ShardLab, a Singapore based venture studio that describes itself as the innovation arm of South Korean headquartered blockchain investment firm, Hashed.

The investment amount was not disclosed with the two companies to form a joint venture to explore new consumer payment and rewards experiences for merchants and consumers across the region.

Alongside the announcement, StoreHub disclosed the scale of its network for the first time: 20,000+ merchant locations across Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Japan, processing more than 200 million transactions annually with approximately US$3.5 billion in annual transaction value.

Wai Hong Fong (pic), CEO of StoreHub, said: “StoreHub has spent over a decade building the commerce and payments infrastructure that merchants across Asia use to run their businesses every day. ShardLab and Hashed have spent years at the forefront of payments and rewards technology, and this partnership is about bringing that work to real merchants at scale.

Anything we build together must pass the same test that everything at StoreHub passes: does it help merchants sell more? The larger shift within StoreHub continues alongside this: we are rebuilding our product around AI, so that a three-person restaurant can operate with the capability of a thirty-person one.”

Hojin Kim, CEO of ShardLab, said: “We have spent the past few years testing how new payment and rewards technologies can improve everyday consumer experiences. StoreHub gives us something fundamentally different: a distribution network of more than 20,000 real-world merchant locations. This partnership is about moving from pilots to scale and building products that create measurable value for both consumers and merchants.”

ShardLab was established through a strategic partnership between Hashed and SCBX, one of Thailand’s largest financial groups, to build and commercialize products at the intersection of frontier technologies and financial services, including programmable loyalty and rewards infrastructure. The partnership with StoreHub connects that work to a scaled, real-world commerce network for the first time.

The joint venture gives the two companies a structure to test new models with real merchants and consumers, and to scale only what demonstrably works. Specific products and initiatives will be announced as and when they launch.