Embed
The Absolute Trailblazer in the Business of Fun

Headquartered in Singapore, Embed is a renowned and well-established company that needs no introduction in the Family Entertainment Center (FEC) industry. Celebrating the 20th anniversary next year, the firm’s cornerstone remains the far-sighted vision of its founder, Malcolm Steinberg, an early pioneer of the FEC concept and an enthusiastic exponent of entrepreneurship who started the business with a handful of pinball machines, the founder of the successful Asia FEC brand, Timezone. During the 1990s, with the rapid emergence of technology transforming sectors, Steinberg envisioned a cashless society in the near future and decided to transform his business, as well as the industry, by launching Embed to provide cashless business technology and its sister company LAI Games to design cutting edge amusement games. Today, preserving his vision and legacy, Embed is the global leader in the cashless business management systems and solutions for the Family Entertainment Center, Amusement, and Attractions industry.

Embed provides a complete integrated solution that enables entertainment business owners to achieve increased operational efficiency while reducing costs and increasing profitability. The company’s software platform, TOOLKIT, allows businesses (single or multi-location) to have real-time visibility and control across its entire operation with a full range of games management, real-time prize inventory, guest party planning, and bookings via mobile, and integrated point-of-sales, including bundles and upsell packages. Along with these, Embed’s solution suite includes hardware solutions— contactless card readers, re-defined RFID wristbands which combines fashion, and textile designs with various materials and technology, stunning game cards designs, and self-service kiosks—to transform businesses to a completely cashless (and low-touch) consumer experience.

Further bolstering Embed’s cashless features is its next-gen award-winning Mobile Wallet solution. Launched last year by Embed’s CEO, Renee Welsh, a formidable award-winning Australian entrepreneur (who’s launched and sold technology startups), the Mobile Wallet allows customers to add virtual game cards to the mobile wallet, enabling contactless game play with virtual game cards that can be reloaded anytime, anywhere. This breakthrough technology makes Embed the only non-banking finance-payment or loyalty card business and brand card that sits in the mobile wallet with no app download required. Mobile Wallet is also the only FEC business solution that’s Apple IOS and Google Android compliant.

The secret behind Embed’s continued visionary history and advanced technology offerings is its unique methodology of developing robust solutions. The company ensures guest centricity by researching customer behavior as well as industry trends. “Whether it’s observing guest journey in a venue or going through research papers, we analyze how we can bring the data together and ultimately enable business owners to improve the guest experience while increasing profitability,” explains Renee Welsh, CEO of Embed. Further, Embed meticulously tracks technological advancements in other hyper-competitive industries and partners with the best-of-breed providers to bring them to FEC customers.

With the current COVID-19 pandemic, Embed’s solutions have proved to be the best choice for entertainment business owners to meet customer expectations and deliver a superior guest experience. Research shows that customers are universally more hygiene-conscious and cautious of safety. The low-touch feature of the company’s integrated solution ensures guest safety and satisfaction. “We enable our clients to offer effective next-level contactless experience within their venues, helping them connect with the guests at a deeper level,” says Renee.

Also unique to Embed is its entrepreneurial approach to critical situations while upholding core values. With Amusement and Attractions being one of the hardest-hit industries due to COVID-19, Embed’s clients were impacted and struggled to reopen their Family Entertainment Centers. Demonstrating its mission to enable, empower, and ease the business of fun, Embed declared its commitment to the industry’s recovery by giving away the Mobile Wallet for free simply because it’s what the industry most needed. “Because that’s how we could support the industry and the communities they serve,” comments Renee. The company pivoted its strategy and worked in six-week cycles of innovation to roll out a sequence of industry-supporting initiatives.

Our technology system pays for itself, and while that is great, I am more interested in partnering with our customers to transform their businesses, driving 600 percent increase in credit card usage, 40 percent YOY revenue growth, 90 percent reduction in man-hours, and opening 4 locations in three years

In March, Embed launched EmbedLIVE, bringing in opinion leaders to share their insights and leadership experiences. The company also published insightful papers and informative blogs to help the industry navigate the pandemic. In April, the company implemented the COVID-19 Relief Act, which provides the Mobile Wallet free for a year to anyone (not just Embed customers). During May, they went on to unveil the COVID-19 Resource Centre to help businesses with their reopening strategies. “Most of our clients are family-owned businesses and they struggled with the elevated cleaning protocols, capacity management, social distancing and more,” recalls Renee. Embed developed and delivered creative toolkits for operators to use in their reopening. The Mobile Wallet creative toolkit and a Reopening creative toolkit, covering the entire customer journey and touchpoints—from strategic to tactical—with how-to’s and employee cheat sheets. Several client testimonials are available, illustrating how this facilitated successful reopening and business recovery. Further, to help clients adhere to the strict cleaning protocols and accelerated pace of cleaning, Embed joined forces with scientists to battle COVID-19 and launched Embed Hygiene Defence products. These natural, non-toxic products ensure protection that is non-toxic to consumers (non-ethanol-based) to an industry that prides itself on being family friendly.

At the helm of this commendable superhuman effort was Embed’s CEO Renee Welsh. She joined Embed three years ago with the acquisition of her startup, BookingBoss, that offers a ticketing and booking management solution. Since then, Renee has led Embed’s successful journey. The passion and deep expertise she brings to the table enabled the company to transform its business and help clients to reinvent themselves during the pandemic. She regularly communicates with a range of clients—from multi-site to small-scale businesses—listening to them and incorporating insights to Embed’s offerings.

Highlighting client success stories during the pandemic, Renee cites an instance wherein the company helped a client reopen the business. Already committed to opening a second venue, the client diligently implemented Embed’s Toolkit solution, used the creative toolkit to reopen, and strategies while working closely with the company. This enabled the client to open the second FEC venue while also doing a pop-up arcade within six weeks, along with installing Embed’s self-service kiosks, prospering during a pandemic! They were also able to help another client cut 90 percent of man-hours and achieve a ten percent decrease in operating costs. “Our technology system pays for itself, and while that is great, I am more interested in partnering with our customers to transform their businesses, driving 600 percent increase in credit card usage, 40 percent YOY revenue growth, 90 percent reduction in man-hours, and opening 4 locations in three years! These are the awe-inspiring business performance metrics from our customers that fuel our mission and professional velocity!” extols Renee.

Introducing game-changing innovations and pioneering the industry’s transformation, Embed continues to be the trailblazer in the FEC industry. The company makes its mark by providing a win-win for both guests and clients. “Customers today expect an immersive entertainment experience. We strive to ensure that our clients deliver this experience to their customers, helping them have fun with their family and friends, and that’s what we focus on while developing our technology,” concludes Renee.