REFFIND revamps flagship WooBoard product and prepares for blockchain future

Enterprise rewards and loyalty company REFFIND (ASX: RFN) has revamped its prime service offering as the company prepares to embrace distributed ledger technology (DLT) and implement blockchain functionality across its product range.

According to REFFIND, the revamp constitutes the first step of a broader restructuring process that includes the acquisition of several highly-experienced management personnel, the creation of new online and social media assets and acquiring a 15% stake in Loyyal, a technology company that has developed a leading loyalty platform within the blockchain space.

Blockchain is a form of financial technology (fintech) that underpins major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple, and REFFIND is confident it can leverage this breakthrough technology on the back of Loyyal’s proprietary blockchain network platform.

REFFIND says that the second stage of its strategic shift into blockchain is to integrate WooBoard with Loyyal’s blockchain-based platform.

WooBoard is a cloud-based employee rewards and recognition platform that allows enterprise customer employees to acknowledge, reward and celebrate their achievements. The set of features offered by the platform has been widely expanded with the technical capabilities made possible by DLT.

REFFIND’s latest version of WooBoard features easy-to-use recognition, social capabilities, improved branding opportunities, and a unified points system that drives daily interaction amongst employees.

The latest release also has improved web application performance, providing a better user experience for its customers and creating mobile-based versions of the platform.

Proactive in changing direction

The completion of technical upgrades means REFFIND is moving on to committing additional resources to proactively target new corporate customers within the employee rewards and engagement market.

Furthermore, REFFIND says that it has appointed an independent expert to contribute to its next stage of new product development which is aimed at “integration of larger widely implemented backend human resource systems” and Loyyal’s blockchain based platform.

REFFIND reports that the independent expert is “performing market research with existing and new customers and providing key data analytics to ensure that customer requirements are aligned” with new product development initiatives currently being developed by the company.

Late last year, REFFIND appointed well-known blockchain expert Tim Lea as its new CEO. Mr Lea is leading the company’s newly-found market direction with the set target of becoming a well-established employer-employee intermediary and developing high-quality blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) products, able to carry out greater amounts of data handling at a reduced cost to traditional software-as-a-service (SaaS) alternatives.

Reffind has also recruited strategic global blockchain industry advisor Matthew Hamilton and local Aussie blockchain authority David Jackson, to its board.

Loyalty personified

The key pivot for REFFIND’s new market strategy and blockchain-powered future comes via its collaboration with Loyyal.

REFFIND’s investment in Loyyal as announced in January this year, is subject to a number of terms including the finalisation of a “performance-based territorial licence and service level agreement (SLA),” according to the company.

REFFIND’s investment amounts to maximum of approximately US$2.3 million in a staged deal that will see REFFIND obtain a 14.71% stake in Loyyal on a fully-diluted basis.

From the perspective of functionality, the deal means REFFIND obtains exclusive access to Loyyal’s technology including its proprietary loyalty platform that has attracted Fortune 500 leaders including Deloitte, Dubai Points, Emirates Airlines and several others including a “large US financial services company”, although the company remains tight-lipped about its forthcoming client collaborations that “cannot currently be named for confidentiality reasons”.

Reffind intends to leverage Loyyal’s market position and digital market access to over 4.5 billion people, and ultimately, to improve upon its own commercial position by generating strong revenues in the Asia/Pacific region.

“We are very pleased with the transformation that REFFIND is currently undergoing. With our newly upgraded WooBoard platform, a bolstered team, and the move into the blockchain space, we are well-placed to deliver value to our shareholders,” said Tim Lea, CEO of REFFIND.

“The investment in Loyyal was a significant milestone for our strategic growth plan and we now have the capital, technology, and team in place to execute our further growth objectives,” he added.