Oxigen Wallet names former Airtel exec Saleem Mobhani COO

Gurgaon-based payment solutions provider Oxigen Services India Pvt Ltd, which operates Oxigen Wallet, has appointed former Bharti Airtel Ltd executive Saleem Mobhani as its new chief operating officer.

Mobhani will be responsible for strengthening the market position of Oxigen Wallet, the company said in a statement.

Mobhani has about 20 years of experience in media, entertainment, digital and telecom companies. Prior to his new assignment, he served as the vice-president for global partnerships at Saudi Telecom Youth Brand. In his earlier assignments, he served as senior vice president at Bharti Airtel and headed its mobile entertainment vertical. Earlier, he also served as the COO at Hungama Mobile, a division of Virtual Marketing India Pvt Ltd.

"The ability to create financial inclusion for a large part of our country excites me and the objective to give a different kind of financial freedom for users is what I hope to execute in my new assignment," Mobhani told Techcircle.in.

Oxigen was founded in 2004 by IIT-Roorkee graduate Pramod Saxena, along with South African firm Blue Label Telecom as a mobile recharge business. In August 2014, it launched Oxigen Wallet that allows users to transfer money, recharge their mobile, DTH or data packs, pay phone and utility bills. It also offers gift cards for about 60 brands. The wallet also allows users to send and receive money through Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and e-mail. Customers earn loyalty points that can be redeemed as cash into the wallet or as PayBack points.

Oxigen competes with the likes of Paytm, Mobikwik, Pay U, Mymobile and Udio in the mobile wallet segment. Paytm claims to be the leader in the digital wallet space with about 120 million registered users.

Oxigen Wallet, which claims to have 20 million users, is accepted at about 9,000 merchant locations and 10,000 online sites. On Wednesday, it also announced its tie-up with Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation to allow travelers to book bus tickets through the Oxigen Wallet app.