SINGAPORE - Twenty five eateries - including homegrown bakery chain Cedele and a row of drinks and food stalls along Telok Ayer Street - are the first to come onboard the electronic payment platform set up by ride-hailing firm Grab.

The first batch of merchants - out of the 1,000 that the firm had said it aims to attract by the end of the year - was announced by Grab on Wednesday (Nov 1), as it launched the GrabPay wallet.

Other shops include A Poke Theory, Cafe Zeppin, Napolean Wine Bar and Park Bench Deli. Signs have been put up at the stalls to inform customers of the additional payment option.

To pay, customers have to open the Grab app and select the Grabpay option, tap on “pay” and scan the QR (quick response) code displayed at the merchants’ counter. They can then key in the amount payable, and both merchant and customer will be notified of the transaction.

Grab said on Wednesday that it eventually hopes to have more than 20,000 cash-based merchants onboard. To attract merchants, it is waiving transaction fees for the first six months. Thereafter, they will pay a “very small” fee which the company declined to reveal exactly how much. “We don’t want cost to be a barrier to adoption,” said Grab co-founder Tan Hooi Ling.

In Singapore, the race to roll out digital payments nationwide has gathered strong momentum in recent months, with leading payment solutions provider Nets announcing in September plans to implement various new ways for consumers to pay merchants at all its 100,000 acceptance points by the middle of next year.

These include payment modes such as QR codes, new Nets contactless cards, and an app storing a digital version of Nets ATM cards.

Specifically, Nets has launched QR code payments – via electronic bank wallets from OCBC and UOB – at Tanjong Pagar Market and Food Centre, with plans to extend this payment mode to 30 other hawker centres by the end of the year.

Grab said it is open to working with other e-payment providers. For now, the firm is banking on its app user base of four million to give it an edge over its competitors.

“The biggest differentiator is actually the customer base that we have. For other payment apps… the biggest challenge they have is usually to get new customers to download the app. The best thing about Grab is we already have 65 million users in Southeast Asia, four million in Singapore,” Ms Tan said.

The owner of Nur Nasi Padang at Telok Ayer Street, which is among the first batch of merchants using GrabPay, said he had previously not used any form of e-payments before.

Mr Mohd Nasri, 28, said: “We used to prefer cash, and didn’t bother with QR codes or any of the new payment types so far. But Grab is well known, so I’m comfortable to try using it. If it can help to shorten queues, and reduce the hassle, then it’s good to use this.”

Similarly, Telok Ayer Fishball Noodle Shop is also using an e-payment platform for the first time. Its owner Jenny Tan, 54, said: “No one had marketed e-payments to me, and I also have not heard of Grab before. But our Prime Minister says we need to catch up with other countries, so OK I’ll try this and hope it will be more convenient.”

Mdm Tan was referring to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally speech where he spoke about how Singapore was lagging behind other places, such as China, when it comes to e-payments.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore had earlier announced the setting up of a taskforce to develop a common QR code for Singapore by the end of the year.