Indian conglomerate Tata Group plans to debut its long-anticipated ‘super app,’ called TataNeu, to the public on April 7, the company has disclosed on its app and Play Store page.
Years-in-the-making and riddled with multiple delays and buggy performance, TataNeu is the salt-to-software giant’s attempt to go head-to-head with rivals including American e-commerce group Amazon and local billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms that have scaled to new heights in the past decade while Tata focused on more legacy businesses.
The app clubs several of Tata Group services including some such as online grocer BigBasket and e-pharmacy platform 1Mg that the firm has purchased in recent years. TataNeu will also offer users the ability to send people money and pay broadband, electricity, water and satellite TV bills and secure loans, TechCrunch reported earlier.
Tata is hoping that customers will find its one-stop shop offering and rewards lofty enough to make the bold switch. Tata plans to offer them “NeuCoins” as reward, where one NeuCoin is equivalent to one Indian rupee.
The firm, which has been testing TataNeu with tens of thousands of its employees for several quarters, plans to eventually phase out different group unit loyalty offerings by BigBasket, 1mg and other services and replace them with NeuCoins, TechCrunch reported earlier.
The rewards are one of the major focuses for Tata Group as it attempts to build a “connective layer” for its services that operate in a wide range of categories. If successful, the 155-year-old giant is positioned to conjure up the largest loyalty program in the country.
The company has also engaged with several investors — including SoftBank, the firm confirmed to Indian newspaper Economic Times — to raise capital for its newfound tech ambitions.
Screenshots of TataNeu app. (Credit: TechCrunch)
TechCrunch reported in February that Tata was inching closer to launching the app. We also got hold of a recent build of the app and access to the service.
From our early-impression:
Despite the delays, TataNeu looks anything but modern and executives at the firm are still scrambling to figure out how they can draw customers to the super app, according to two people familiar with the matter and materials provided to TechCrunch.
[…] But the app is comically buggy, horribly slow and the integrations merely point to different Tata services via an in-app browser — sometimes with the desktop view on a phone.
[H/T: Digbijay Mishra of Economic Times.]