Venture Infotek and Welcome Real-time Join Hands To Launch Innovative Loyalty Solutions in India

Venture Infotek and Welcome Real-time (Welcome) announced today a partnership to launch the next-generation of loyalty offerings in India. These solutions will allow cards payment businesses and retailers to deliver personalized offers and redemption alternatives at the point of sale. This exclusive real-time targeted marketing capability provided by Welcome Real-time is expected to increase cards and retailer brand loyalty and billings, while significantly lowering the cost of customer acquisition and retention.

Expressing his delight on the two organizations coming together, Mr. Piyush Khaitan, Managing Director, Venture Infotek said, “We are very impressed with Welcome Real-time’s technology and solutions and we feel that their core value proposition, which is changing the customer’s payment experience, is very exciting. We can foresee the delight for the card holder and the merchant. Together, we will focus on expanding our go-to-market strategy, by incorporating a whole lot of features and benefits in our loyalty programs.”

“With Welcome as our ideal partner of choice, we will further consolidate our leadership position also in the loyalty market. Loyalty programs help organizations increase and retain their customer base and are best suited for highly competitive business environments, often where the service levels and products are not highly differentiated like airlines, retail, banking or telecommunications to name a few. A strong partnership with Welcome will help us retain the edge in the market”, added Mr. Khaitan.

The Venture Infotek and Welcome Real-time solution now offers banks, retailers and payment networks the following advantages:

· Targeted rewards that customers prefer: Card issuers and retailers will be able to track and analyze customer buying behaviors and other information to deliver more intelligent, targeted rewards in real time at point of sale. Intelligent rewards eliminate promotional waste by delivering the right offer to the right customer at the right time, ultimately driving higher levels of customer satisfaction and increased purchases.

· Lowered marketing costs: Delivering targeted, personalized promotions at the point of sale via merchants reduces operational costs and achieves greater results as compared to more traditional methods of marketing promotions to a broad audience via direct mail or other mass advertising.

· Simplicity in participation: Customers can now select any payment card to automatically enroll in and participate in a promotion or loyalty program. Customers may also opt to use a particular issuer’s card that is offering additional differentiated benefits. Retailer’s perception of the value brought by card issuers and acquirers to such payment transactions is increased.

· Enhanced loyalty: Customers can now use the point of sale as a channel for real-time earning of points and other stored value, as well as real-time redemption. This capability complements and greatly enhances traditional bank and retailer loyalty programs.

“Welcome Real-time is honored to partner with Venture Infotek, India’s first and major transaction processing services provider”, said Philippe Bontemps, VP Business Development, Welcome Real-time. “This partnership aims at providing new and exciting solutions for stimulating card activation and usage in India’s increasingly consumption-driven economy. Welcome’s solution has delivered measurable value for banks and retailers in numerous emerging economies. No doubt, it will be the same for India.”

“Welcome’s technology-independent solution allows for any type of payment card to receive rewards at any point of acceptance”, added Philippe Bontemps. “This flexibility will easily meet fast-evolving retailers’ needs such as those related to mobile and PC based payment platforms.”

- End -

About Venture Infotek

Venture Infotek Global Pvt. Ltd. is India's first and leading ISO 9001:2000 transaction processing and knowledge management company. Incorporated in 1997, Venture Infotek pioneered the introduction of e-Payments in India, and since then has continued to be instrumental in shaping this industry. The company not only enjoys a tremendous first mover’s advantage, but also has in place a superior infrastructure, providing integrated end-to-end card payment solutions to organizations across industry verticals like banking, financial services, petroleum, retail, telecom, manufacturing, government and travel & hospitality. Venture Infotek has recently been declared the winner of the prestigious IMC Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality (RBNQ) Award for 2008, in the Small Business category.

Venture Infotek manages payment card and other transactions emanating from over 150,000 Merchant locations in India. Last year, Venture Infotek processed 150 Mn transactions with a commerce value of Rs. 35,000 Cr. (USD 7 Bn). DEI, the cards and fulfillment division of Venture Infotek, with the largest state-of-the-art secure card personalization bureau in India has a capacity to personalize around 36 million cards per annum. Besides debit and credit cards, Venture Infotek is also present in the space of prepaid cards such as travel and gift cards. NeoWorth, the merchant business division of Venture Infotek, not only offers multi-application Point-of-Sale terminals to merchants, but also innovative products such as ExchangePlus, a Dynamic Currency Conversion solution. Crossing the digital divide, ‘Venture Grama’ is an initiative from Venture Infotek on developing cutting-edge technology and making it available to the rural poor. With a truly pan-India reach from Leh to Port Blair, Venture Infotek services are available in over 6,000 unique postal PIN codes across the country.

Venture Infotek is now spreading its wings internationally, servicing customers in other parts of Asia, as well as the Caribbean and the African markets.

For more on Venture Infotek, please log on to: www.ventureinfotek.com

About Welcome Real-time

Welcome Real-time is a global loyalty solutions provider in the payment integrated value-added service space. Today, as the leading loyalty solutions provider to Fortune 500 banks, Welcome Real-time transforms the way banks design payment cards loyalty and promotional marketing programs with our award winning XLS solution. Through a combination of innovative technology, global consulting and marketing services, Welcome Real-time enables banks and merchants of all sizes to increase their business by enabling them to execute profitable card loyalty and reward decisions, thereby driving increased acceptance of card payment usage amongst merchants and greater convenience and value for customers.

Welcome Real-time is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France. More information about Welcome Real-time can be found at www.welcome-rt.com.

About Welcome Real-time

Welcome Real-time is a global loyalty solutions provider in the payment integrated value-added service space. Today, as the leading loyalty solutions provider to Fortune 500 banks, Welcome Real-time transforms the way banks design payment cards loyalty and promotional marketing programs with our award winning XLS solution. Through a combination of innovative technology, global consulting and marketing services, Welcome Real-time enables banks and merchants of all sizes to increase their business by enabling them to execute profitable card loyalty and reward decisions, thereby driving increased acceptance of card payment usage amongst merchants and greater convenience and value for customers.

Welcome Real-time is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France. More information about Welcome Real-time can be found at www.welcome-rt.com.