Ola rolls out credit card in partnership with SBI

Cab-hailing firm Ola, via its payments arm Ola Money, has launched a credit card in partnership with public sector lender the State Bank of India, a joint statement by the two companies said.

The credit cards, issued by SBI, will be powered by payments technology major Visa. The two companies stated that users can avail of a simplified application process with no joining fees.

The Ola-SBI credit card tie up comes close on the heels of the launch of Paytm’s credit card in collaboration with banking giant Citi.

The cab-hailing firm aims to issue 10 million Ola Money SBI credit cards by 2022.

“Mobility spends form a significant wallet share for users and we see a huge opportunity to transform their payments experience with this solution,” says Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and chief executive of Ola.

Ola says that users of the credit card will be able to avail of sizeable cash-backs and rewards which, in turn, will be instantly credited to their accounts in the form of Ola Money which can be redeemed against Ola rides, flight and hotel bookings with lifetime validity. It also said that users of the credit card will be able to apply for, view and manage their credit card transactions on the Ola app itself.

“Through this card, we aim to address their evolving mobility spends while providing them with maximum value and unique benefits on their travel spends, especially for a cab-based commute,” said Hardayal Prasad, managing director and CEO at SBI Cards.

Bengaluru-based ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs Ola, launched its payments platform in late 2015 by acquiring a majority stake in mobile wallet company ZipCash Card Services Pvt. Ltd, which now runs Ola Money. Later in 2016, it bought another firm Chennai-based Qarth Technologies Pvt. Ltd, an IIT-Madras incubated mobile payments startup.

In 2017, Ola integrated unified payment interface (UPI) on its platform, allowing its customers to use their UPI IDs to pay for rides.

In December 2017, Ola appointed Nitin Gupta, co-founder and former chief executive of payment gateway firm PayU India, as the head of Ola Money.

Ola operates in over 125 cities across India, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, hosting 1.5 million drivers across its network.