ShardLab has invested in StoreHub and formed a joint venture with the Kuala Lumpur-based commerce platform to develop consumer payment and rewards products across Southeast Asia, giving the new venture access to a merchant network of more than 20,000 locations.
The partnership, announced in Kuala Lumpur on Aug. 24, 2026, will focus on testing products with merchants and consumers before expanding those that demonstrate measurable results. Neither company disclosed the size of ShardLab’s investment, the initial product lineup, nor a timetable for the first launches.
StoreHub already operates across Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Japan, providing point-of-sale, payment, loyalty and online-ordering software to retail and food-and-beverage businesses. According to the companies’ announcement, its platform processes more than 200 million transactions annually and handles around US$3.5 billion in yearly transaction value.
That existing checkout footprint gives the joint venture a practical distribution channel for payment and loyalty experiments. Rather than beginning with a consumer app and attempting to build merchant acceptance afterward, ShardLab and StoreHub would be able to test features inside businesses already using StoreHub’s operating systems.
Merchant systems become the testing ground
The joint venture is designed to run controlled tests involving both consumers and merchants, then scale products selectively. That approach places adoption, repeat use and merchant operations ahead of a broad regional rollout.
Payment products often face a difficult deployment problem: consumers need places to use them, while merchants need evidence that a new checkout option can generate sales, reduce friction or improve customer retention. StoreHub’s installed base could allow the companies to examine those questions through real transactions at stores, restaurants and other small-business locations.
StoreHub’s services cover several parts of a merchant’s daily workflow, including order management, payment acceptance and customer loyalty. A new rewards tool could therefore potentially connect with existing purchase data and customer interactions rather than operate as a separate system requiring merchants to manage another dashboard.
The companies did not say whether the forthcoming products would use blockchain-based payments, tokenized rewards, stablecoins, digital wallets or another model. They also did not identify participating merchant brands, countries selected for the first tests, or performance targets that would determine whether a pilot expands.
Future initiatives will be announced as they go live, the companies said.
ShardLab brings Hashed and SCBX connection
ShardLab was created through a strategic partnership between Hashed, a Seoul-headquartered venture firm focused on blockchain and digital-asset technology, and SCBX, a Thailand-based financial group.
The structure connects StoreHub’s merchant software network with a venture backed by organizations that have experience across technology and financial services in Asia. For StoreHub, the investment and joint venture add a partner focused on developing new payment and consumer-engagement products. For ShardLab, StoreHub provides a route to test those products through a live commercial network rather than a closed demonstration environment.
Hojin Kim, chief executive of ShardLab, will lead the company on its side of the partnership. Wai Hong Fong, chief executive of StoreHub, continues to lead the merchant platform.
Hashed operates hubs in San Francisco, Singapore, Bangkok, Bangalore and Abu Dhabi in addition to its Seoul headquarters. That network gives ShardLab connections across markets that have become increasingly active in digital assets, though the StoreHub agreement itself is centered on Southeast Asian merchant and consumer use cases.
SCBX’s presence also gives the project a link to Thailand’s established financial sector. The announcement did not specify whether any SCBX financial subsidiaries, banking services or regulated payment infrastructure would participate in the venture’s products.
Rewards may offer the clearest initial fit
Consumer rewards appear to be a natural early area for experimentation because StoreHub already supplies loyalty tools and businesses can measure whether a program changes purchase frequency, basket size or customer return rates. Rewards systems also allow merchants to introduce new digital features without requiring every customer to change how they pay immediately.
A payment feature would face a higher operational bar. Merchants would need a checkout process that is fast, reliable and straightforward for staff, while consumers would need a clear reason to choose the option over cards, bank transfers or local wallets. Products tied to digital assets would also need to operate within the rules of each market where they are offered.
The joint venture’s test-first design suggests the companies are seeking to address those commercial constraints before committing to a larger rollout. StoreHub’s presence in four markets creates room for country-specific trials, but it also means any expansion may need to account for different payment preferences, consumer behavior and regulatory requirements.
Regional reach without an announced launch date
The announcement offers a meaningful merchant-distribution partnership but leaves the immediate commercial impact open. No launch date, product specifications or financial terms were released, making it premature to gauge how quickly the venture could produce a customer-facing service.
StoreHub’s scale nevertheless gives the effort a larger starting point than a standalone pilot involving only a handful of stores. With more than 200 million annual transactions passing through its platform, the company has a substantial base from which to assess whether new payment or reward mechanisms improve the experience for merchants and customers.
The first public measure of the venture’s progress will be the products it chooses to launch and the merchants willing to test them. Until then, the partnership positions StoreHub’s existing checkout and loyalty network as the commercial laboratory for ShardLab’s consumer-payment ambitions in Southeast Asia.
For deeper insight into Asia’s rapidly evolving payments scene, explore why stablecoins matter in Asia today.
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