As Tata readies to launch its super app this week, Ola also seems to be inching towards its super app ambitions, as the mobility major has added bill payments, money transfer, and gift cards under its Ola Money tab.
As of April 6 evening, the Ola Money feature was available for users in both Bengaluru and Delhi NCR. BusinessLine could not verify whether the feature has been launched across the country.
Under payments, the app allows users to pay at stores through Ola Money wallet balance, make bill payments for electricity, DTH, gas, broadband, water, subscription services, and also transfer money to their friends.
Further, the gift cards offering on the app has been integrated in partnership with Qwickcilver and features gift cards for platforms like ecommerce company Amazon, fast food major McDonald’s, food delivery app Swiggy, beauty products retailer MyGlamm, cosmetics brand Plum and others.
Ola did not reply to BusinessLine queries on the matter. Last year, Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal told Reuters Next Conference that the company is “gearing to create something of a super app” and has plans to expand into personal finance and micro-insurance.
New verticals
Since then, Ola has added various new verticals including 10 min grocery delivery service Ola Dash, payments vertical Ola Money, and pre-owned cars retail under Ola Cars, among others.
A super-app is an app that offers a slew of services on one platform such as payments, messaging, online shopping, grocery delivery, and at least two of these services are used frequently by the app users.
In the case of Ola, ride-hailing seems to be the frequently used one, while it continues to add various other verticals such as Ola Foods, Ola Dash, Ola Money, and Ola Cars. Tech companies across sectors have been trying to build an Indian super app including fintech companies like Paytm, PhonePe, ecommerce firms such as Flipkart, Amazon and domestic players such as Tata and Reliance. Tata’s super app Tata Neu is set to launch on April 7 (tomorrow).