Axis Bank and Airtel form fintech partnership, launch credit card

Bharti Airtel has entered into a strategic partnership with India’s third largest private bank, Axis Bank, to offer a range of financial solutions exclusively to the telco’s 340 million subscribers.

The partnership kicked off today with the launch of the Airtel Axis Bank Credit Card that will be exclusively available for eligible Airtel customers through the Airtel Thanks app. The card comes with a host of attractive benefits such as pre-approved instant loans, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) offerings, cashback offers, special discounts, digital vouchers and complimentary services to Airtel customers.

The co-branded credit card will offer 25% cashback on Airtel mobile, DTH recharges and broadband fiber payments. Additionally, customers will get 10% cashback on electricity, gas and water bill payments via the Airtel Thanks app, as well as 10% cashback on purchases from preferred merchants, among others.

Under the partnership, Axis Bank will leverage Airtel’s suite of digital services such as its C-PaaS platform ‘Airtel IQ’ – which spans voice, messaging, video, streaming, call masking and virtual contact center solutions – to enhance digital capabilities.

Axis Bank will also use various cyber security services from Airtel. Going forward, the companies will further explore collaborating across cloud and data center services.

Airtel and Axis said in a joint statement that the alliance, with its significant reach across the country, will help penetrate tier 2 and tier 3 markets by enabling higher adoption of digitized payments, at least for Airtel customers initially.

“Through this win-win telco-bank partnership, Airtel customers will get access to Axis Bank’s financial services portfolio and exclusive benefits, while Axis Bank will benefit from Airtel’s strong digital capabilities and deep distribution reach,” Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India and South Asia) of Airtel said.

Amitabh Chaudhry, MD and CEO of Axis Bank, said that this “one of its kind collaboration” would help widen access to credit and various digital financial offerings from Axis Bank for Airtel’s 340 million customers.