Challenge

StarHub is one of Singapore’s largest and most trusted mobile providers. In recent years, however, competition has intensified in the value segment from low-cost mobile service providers.

To compete effectively, StarHub launched eight, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) powered by StarHub’s network. The brand was designed as a challenger focused on simplicity, speed, and value. eight offers affordable, flexible, SIM-only plans that customers can use on their existing devices—making it ideal for travelers needing a secondary SIM, foreign domestic workers, migrant workers, students, seniors, and bargain hunters.

“Customers were overwhelmed by complicated promotions and hard-to-understand plans. With eight, we launched a brand built around a number that resonates deeply in Asia and symbolizes prosperity—while keeping mobile simple, transparent, and easy to onboard,” said Vikas Chanani, vice president of challenger brand.

As eight began selling SIM cards through offline partners, the brand rapidly scaled to more than 400 neighborhood shops across Singapore, driven by fast onboarding and quick activation times—key factors for retailers.

However, the team quickly realized their existing payments infrastructure was not built for a fast-moving challenger brand. To meet an aggressive go-to-market timeline, eight needed a payment partner that could support rapid scaling while mitigating fraud risk in high-volume digital transactions.

Solution

For its launch, eight partnered with platform developer Isoton to build a web portal and app enabling retailers to easily order and pay for eight mobile plans. To power payments across this ecosystem, eight selected Stripe for its ability to launch quickly, scale seamlessly, and support multiple payment methods.

eight and Isoton integrated Stripe Payments into a fully automated B2B partner portal, allowing offline retailers to purchase wholesale credits in real time using bank cards or PayNow, Singapore’s real-time bank transfer network.

The team also integrated Stripe into eight’s consumer-facing website, enabling customers to purchase and manage plans directly.

eight automatically processes transactions on the portal, generates invoices, and reconciles records, while also using AI-powered authorization optimizations such as network tokens and card account updater to help prevent payment failures.

To safeguard payments, eight implemented Stripe Radar for Fraud Teams. In addition to using Radar’s built-in machine learning models and prebuilt block and review rules, eight can customize its fraud rules to better identify suspicious transactions and maintain a low dispute rate as it scales the business.

Stripe’s professional services team worked closely with eight during implementation to remove blockers and ensure the platform was deployed according to industry best practices.

Results

eight quickly launches offline partner portal

Thanks to Stripe’s APIs and clear documentation, eight and its developer partner were able to quickly build and launch its Stripe-powered retailer portal, going live in July 2024—in time to ramp up its aggressive go-to-market strategy.

“Stripe helped us launch quickly with a common payments backbone that works seamlessly for both customers and offline partners,” said Chanani. “That speed and operational efficiency were critical as we entered a highly competitive segment with lean operations.”

eight scales to hundreds of thousands of transactions per month

Within a year of launching on Stripe in August 2024, eight scaled rapidly, reaching hundreds of thousands of monthly transactions.

“Within a year of the launch of eight, it already became one of the fastest-growing mobile brands in Singapore,” said Chanani.

eight has already earned multiple industry awards, including the Rising Star Award at the MVNO World Congress and Telecom Company of the Year at the Asia Telecom Awards, among other recognitions.

Retail partners eliminate manual funding processes

By automating the ordering and payments process with its B2B online portal, eight enabled retailers to purchase credits in real time, significantly accelerating activations and improving partner experience.

A single payments platform now supports both eight’s digital channels and its 400-plus retail partners islandwide, improving operational efficiency while lowering its cost to serve. This was important, as it was managed by a lean operating team.

eight achieves 98.4% authorization rate

By using Stripe’s network optimizations, eight has consistently maintained a 98.4% authorization rate, even as its transaction volume and revenue scaled.

“In telco, payments are high-frequency—subscriptions, top-ups, roaming—and every extra click or false decline hurts,” said Chanani.

15% of payments come from PayNow

PayNow integration has expanded eight’s reach to key customer segments. By enabling multiple payment methods through a single Stripe integration, eight unlocked higher conversions at a lower cost—particularly among migrant workers, students, and customers who prefer Singapore’s popular bank transfer methods over bank cards.

eight reduces fraud rate to near zero

Despite scaling to more than hundreds of thousands of transactions per month, eight has maintained a fraud rate of just 0.01%. Using Radar for Fraud Teams, eight is able to proactively identify and block suspicious activity while adapting its controls as transaction volume grows.

Stripe’s AI-powered fraud detection helps eight scale securely without adding operational overhead, giving the team confidence to expand quickly while protecting customers and partners.

“Stripe gives us the confidence to scale quickly while keeping fraud tightly under control,” said Chanani. “That balance is critical in a high-volume telco environment. Ultimately, our goal is invisible payments for customers—secure, seamless, and effortless.”