Ola to deliver free oxygen concentrators, Razorpay raises Covid relief fund

Ride hailing startup Ola and fintech firm Razorpay are the latest additions to the list of companies that are helping India fight the second wave of Covid-19.

Ola Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Ola Group, is set to launch an initiative with non-profit GiveIndia to provide free oxygen concentrators to the public, as per a statement.

Those in need will have to submit details such as address for delivery and health status of the patient to request an oxygen cylinder on the Ola app. A trained driver, the statement said, will deliver the oxygen concentrator to the user’s doorstep, and pick it back up when it is no longer needed.  

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Dubbed O2ForIndia, the service is expected to go live in Bengaluru this week with about 500 oxygen concentrators. In the next few weeks, the programme will be expanded across India with about 10,000 oxygen concentrators in circulation, the statement said.  

The user must deposit Rs 5,000 to avail the five litre oxygen concentrator, according to instructions on the app. The amount will be refunded once the used concentrator is returned, it said.  

Begins in Bangalore this week & will expand across India in coming weeks. We hope this initiative brings much-needed support during these very difficult times and helps in mitigating the pain and the anxiety among those impacted. #O2forIndia 3/3

— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) May 10, 2021

Separately, fintech unicorn Razorpay said it has raised Rs 20 crore for Covid relief through the ‘donate now’ feature, which was activated on the checkout page for all its merchants.  

The amount will be donated to the company’s NGO partners who are engaged in Covid-19 relief campaigns, a statement said. As per its website, it has over 20 NGO partners, including Hemkunt Foundation and Milaap.

Razorpay has also offered NGOs a free payments page to collect donations and has waived off transaction fees for donations up to Rs 10 lakh.

Startups such as Droom, Cred, Paytm, Zomato, Grofers, TrulyMadly, Hubhopper and SourceFuse, as well as global technology firms are also running pandemic relief initiatives.