ICICI Bank and Ola Cab have signed a wide-ranging agreement today, which spans all parts of the business including customers, driver partners and the bank. There will be four services provided by ICICI Bank to Ola’s stakeholders:

• Book an Ola Cab via ICICI Bank app (just like you can book an Uber via the Hyatt or Jet Airways app)
• Access to small credit (Ola has been experimenting with providing a dynamic credit line to some customers depending on their history with Ola)
• Enable payments to driver partners (direct daily payments to Ola Cab driver partners using a debit card which can be used for withdrawals as well as swiping at merchants)

And the most interesting one for you as a customer is the Ola co-branded credit card. Taking a leaf from the Uber playbook in the USA, Ola has now signed up to launch a co-branded credit card in India. There is not much detail about what will be on offer, but the press release states that it will be used to provide promotional offers and reward points to customers.

We’ll have to wait and see what is in store when it comes out. In the meanwhile, if I were the product manager I’d sure bundle in Ola Select for all the credit card owners and treat them like VIPs!

Anyone excited about a car-sharing cobrand card in India (and disappointed that no hotel chain is still stepping up!)?