Sodexo launches multi-benefit pass in India

Employee benefits firm Sodexo has launched Multi-Benefit Pass, which is a solution that can be used for not just meal-benefits but also for fuel or other purchases. The card will have a magnetic stripe facility for meal benefits while the chip facility can be used for the other benefits offered in partnership with RuPay (National Payments Corporation of India).

In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Suvodeep Das, VP-Marketing for Sodexo BRS India, said that the idea of the product is to use one single card for multiple transactions by an employee. RuPay has a 3.6 million network in India.

"There is no such solution at present where one card can be used for multiple types of transactions. We wanted to bring that ease to the employee benefits space," he added.

Das said that the card will have multiple virtual wallets which can be used for meal benefits, fuel or telecom. Further, if companies want to offer digital gifting options to employee, the virtual wallet can be recharged for the particular amount during festivals like Diwali or Christmas.

However, he clarified that clients who want special gift cards can continue to get those from Sodexo as part of the gifting and recognition solutions.

This is the first such 2-in-1 card in India. Das said that their mobile application could be used for using the benefits of the card.

Sodexo offers gift cards and meal cards. At present, while the Sodexo meal card works on a propriety network in compliance with the Reserve Bank of India guidelines, the gift cards are accepted on the RuPay network for 3.6 million retail outlets and 90,000 major online portals.

"More than 75 percent of our consumers use our application frequently. We are hoping that this can be replicated with the new solution as well," he said.

With Sodexo Multi-Benefit Pass, the company aims to cut down the hassle for employees to collate and submit bills.

Nalin Bansal, Head of RuPay, NCMC (National Common Mobility Card) and NFS (National Financial Switch), NPCI said: "Prepaid cards is one of our core business under RuPay portfolio. As part of our strategy, we have increased our focus on the non-bank prepaid issuers and have developed a fast-track, seamless and cost effective onboarding process."

Sodexo Meal Pass is currently accepted across 100,000 plus points in 1,700 locations. The company has more than 11,000 clients in the public and private sector with 3 million daily users.