The Google-backed Indian telecom operator has partnered with third-largest private bank in India – Axis Bank

Indian telecommunication services company, Airtel has reportedly announced the launch of a credit card, underpinning the latest move of the company to add financial services capabilities and expand portfolio into the second largest internet market in the world.

According to the network supervised by Sunil Mittal, Airtel is collaborating with India’s third largest private sector bank ‘Axis Bank’, to launch together a “first-of-its-kind” credit card, as the two parties like to call it.

Reportedly, the new Airtel Axis Credit Card will offer pre-approved instant loans to it customers along with buy now, pay later (BNPL) offerings. It will also provide rewards when customers use Airtel’s app for transactions or paying bills for its services.

Notably, the card is designed to cater to Airtel subscribers only and is targeting customers from smaller cities and towns in India with so far more than 340 million subscribers in the country.

Under the terms of agreement, Axis Bank will leverage Airtel’s C-PaaS platform – comprising of multiple services including call masking, streaming, contact center solutions – and a variety of cybersecurity services.

Both Axis Bank and Airtel will use this partnership to explore the potential of collaborating throughout cloud and data services.

For a long time now, Airtel has been eyeing the financial services space as it emerged as the fastest-growing sector encouraging rival business tycoons such as Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms and is pursuing similar level of success in the financial sector.

Airtel-Axis announcement of the credit card launch comes after Google shared its plans to invest up to $1 billion in Airtel and work with the operator to design innovative affordability programs with a view of exploring potential partnerships with smartphone markers to develop affordable products.

Source Credit: https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/06/airtel-credit-card/?guccounter=1