Sakae, MC Payment ink MOU, aim to launch South-east Asia's F&B digital token

FOOD and beverage group Sakae Holdings on Thursday announced that its subsidiary, Sakae Fintech, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ffastpay, a unit of electronic payment solutions provider Mobile Credit Payment (MC Payment), to develop a custom blockchain to generate a food and beverage (F&B) digital token - "Bitecoin", for the South-east Asia market.

Under the terms of the MOU, the two subsidiaries - with their industry connections, will jointly support the funding and marketing aspects of a "Token Generation Event", Sakae said in a filing with the Singapore Exchange on Thursday.

Ffastpay will undertake the development and maintenance of the custom blockchain that will generate the Bitecoins.

The decentralised digital token, which will be based off the Ethereum blockchain technology, aims to provide reliable and secure peer-to-peer transactions between consumers and merchants through an automated process.

Said Douglas Foo, chairman of Sakae Holdings: "The objective of Bitecoin is to empower the industry to achieve greater efficiency for both consumers and merchants while at the same time optimising food retail systems and maximising marketing impact for the latter."

The use of Bitecoin could help reduce time delays and added costs caused by human errors, automate inventory control and streamline fulfilment processes, Sakae added.

Bitecoin will be paired with a digital wallet and will amass data to allow merchants to gain a deeper understanding of consumer demographics and feedback, as well as implement targeted marketing tools.

Meanwhile, token users may benefit from getting targeted promotions that take into account their loyalty and preferences.

Said Anthony Koh, founder and chief executive officer of MC Payment: "We are confident that Bitecoin, while a novel idea, will greatly benefit consumers and merchants by improving efficiency, enhancing convenience and experience."

Over time, as the project gains momentum, we expect to see a meaningful number of merchants and customers embracing Bitecoin, Mr Koh added.