New Delhi: Online Food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy on Monday has partnered with the country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank to roll out two digital solutions to facilitate the transfer of funds for its delivery partners.
This includes a Unified Payment Interface (UPI)-based solution for instant fund transfers, and an option for facilitating cash deposits at automated Cash Deposit Machine (CDM) available at ICICI Bank branches and ATM locations across the country, Swiggy said in a statement.
The integration aims to bring convenience to Swiggy's large fleet of delivery partners by reducing the need for travelling to their collection hubs to deposit the money.
With this solution, Swiggy's delivery partners will have their own UPI handle (VPA) to which they can link their savings bank account and start transacting by using UPI-enabled apps like Bhim, ICICI Pockets, Google Tez, PhonePe, PayTM among others, it added.
ICICI Bank will credit the beneficiary (Swiggy's) account instantly as well as send the delivery partner's details to Swiggy, enabling it to update the collection against the delivery partner instantly.
An immediate payment confirmation of the transfer of money is sent to the delivery partner as well.
While consumers on Swiggy opt for multiple payment options, 'cash on delivery' continues to be a popular choice.
The new initiative, along with eliminating unnecessary trips to the hub, acts like a fail-safe against concerns like cash leakages, it said.
"Our delivery partners are the backbone of Swiggy. We are constantly looking for ways to support the ease of operations by adopting superior technology, and the partnership with ICICI Bank on both the UPI solution and automated CDM will take this a notch higher," said Rahul Bothra, chief financial officer, Swiggy in a statement.
ICICI Bank was among the fore-runners in conceptualising UPI as an initiative along with NPCI and was the first bank to introduce UPI in its mobile app, B Madhivanan, Group executive and chief technology and digital officer, ICICI Bank said in the statement.
"We have created an ecosystem for technology and e-commerce players to help them undertake digital transactions in a seamless way," he added.
Founded in 2014, Swiggy aims to "change the way India eats" and is currently operational in cities like New Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai among a few others.
