Digital gifting platform Swych partnered with WeChat and Travelex this week, announcing that its blockchain-based gift card technology will power Travelex’s Travelex Pay, a cashless spending tool hosted within messaging app WeChat.

Travelex Pay will enable Chinese travelers visiting the U.S. to use digital gift cards on the Swych platform to make purchases at U.S. retailers within the WeChat app using funds in their WeChat Pay account. To make a purchase at one of the 700 retailers participating with Swych, WeChat’s 800 million WeChat Pay users can use Travelex Pay to generate an electronic gift card close to the purchase amount, and WeChat automatically deducts the amount in their home currency in real time. To complete the purchase, the cashier either scans a barcode or enters a payment code and receives payment in USD.

The gift cards are fee-free and help users avoid foreign exchange fees which could add up to 3% to 5% of their purchase. However, as a potential added cost to users (and potential benefit to retailers), users can only purchase gift cards in increments of $10.

“Chinese tourism in the U.S. is increasing – both in number of people and the amount of money spent,” CEO and Founder of Swych, Deepak Jain, said. “With more than 90 percent of Chinese tourists expressing interest in using mobile payments overseas if given the choice, Swych, Travelex, with WeChat Pay, have combined service offerings to fill the demand for a frictionless and zero-fee payment option. This is yet another innovation aimed at furthering cross border commerce and making Swych the most advanced digital gifting platform in the market.”

According to Jing Travel, Swych not only plans to add retailers to the platform, it also hopes to launch Travelex Pay in geographies other than the U.S. that are popular with Chinese tourists. There are no plans in place currently, however, to expand Travelex Pay outside of the WeChat ecosystem.

At FinovateSpring earlier this year, Swych demonstrated how it facilitates cross-border money transfers using its digital gifting platform in a presentation that won the company Best of Show. With 50+ employees, Swych boasts 50,000 registered users in the U.S., 100,000 users in India, and more than 50 corporate customers. Earlier this year, the Texas-based company announced it is leveraging its recent acquisition of GiftCardsIndia to facilitate cross-border gifting between the U.S. and India.

Blockchain-based digital gifting platform Swych has taken one more step to “gifting without borders.” The Texas-based company announced it is leveraging its recent acquisition of GiftCardsIndia to facilitate cross-border gifting.

With the new integration of the recently-purchased platform, U.S. users can now send digital gift cards to friends and family in India in real time. Swych offers gifting options for hundreds of big-name, local retailers including Big Bazaar, Flipkart, and Myntra.

This move is the company’s first foray into the international market and another step toward its goal “to facilitate mobile gifting for users across borders worldwide.” CEO and Founder of Swych, Deepak Jain, said, “By launching GiftCardsIndia.com in the U.S., we are addressing a large market demand from the Indian diaspora here. Now anyone can easily send their favorite gift card from their mobile phone to their loved one’s mobile phone in India.”

Founded in 2016, Swych leverages the blockchain to provide an instant, secure, and scalable way for individuals and corporations to send gifts and incentives in the form of a gift card. When the recipient is notified of the gift, they can use the Swych platform to change the gift card to a merchant of their choosing and in their preferred currency. In some cases, the user even benefits from a discount or reward that a merchant offers for switching their gift card over to a different brand.

“Existing cross-border gifting options are either costly or inefficient,” Jain explained. “When sending cross-border gifts, consumers and businesses need to manage liability, foreign exchange and customs, as well as regulatory and compliance issues which are complex and time consuming. We’re proud to offer our users a convenient, secure, and fee-free alternative to this emerging ecosystem, all while simultaneously working to facilitate ease of accordance with changing regulatory and compliance requirements.”

At FinovateSpring earlier this year, Swych demonstrated how it facilitates cross-border money transfers using its digital gifting platform in a presentation that won the company Best of Show. With 50+ employees, Swych boasts 50,000 registered users in the U.S., 100,000 users in India, and more than 50 corporate customers. Last fall, the company launched a new set of multi-currency, themed gifting options.

FinovateFall Best of Show winner Swych has introduced a new set of themed, e-gifting options. The new switchable Occasion, Category, and Event-themed e-gift cards are automatically redeemable in either U.S. dollars or Indian Rupees (depending on location) at retailers matching the category theme. A U.S. shopper who receives a Fashion e-gift card could “swych” it in order to make purchases at a retailer or speciality clothing boutique in the States, while the same card received by a shopper in India could be redeemed at a popular Indian retailer such as Shopper’s Stop.

“We are re-envisioning gifting between consumers by thinking about it in a social and fun way,” Swych founder and CEO Deepak Jain said. “Swych’s value proposition is to make every gift a perfect one; and now we are taking it further by making the gifting transaction between consumers located in two different parts of the planet as seamless and easy as sharing a video or having a chat conversation.” He added, “our launch of a multi-currency, global category gifting portfolio is a step in this direction.”

Examples of the category-themed e-gift cards include Birthday, Anniversary, Graduation, Wedding, New Baby, and Thank You products. The company is also planning to add special events and holiday-themed universal e-gift cards for Diwali, Christmas, and other occasions.

Swych’s e-gift cards are unique insofar as there are no other multi-currency, multi-retailer gift products available on the market that do not also incur interchange or foreign exchange fees when used. In the same way that e-gift cards have made gifting easier within countries and regions, Swych’s new offering makes it easy for consumers to send gifts to friends and family abroad, as well as for businesses and institutions looking to provide rewards and incentives to employees working in more than one country. Swych’s e-gifting solutions have no transaction fees, can be used at the recipient’s preferred merchant, and integrate readily within remittance, mobile banking, messaging, conversational commerce, and loyalty programs.

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Swych demonstrated its Mobile Gifting Platform at FinovateFall 2016, winning Best of Show. The company has more than 130 U.S. retailers in its network and is partnering with 100 retailers from India, the Philippines, and other countries. Last month, the company announced a “major strategic investment” from UAE Exchange Group through which the two will jointly develop digital gifting services for consumers in emerging markets. In February, Swych released the beta version of its P2P gifting bot. The Swych mobile app is available to U.S. consumers on both iOS and Android.