Tata Group launches super app TataNeu on April 7| Roadsleeper.com
Indian conglomerate Tata Group plans to debut its long-awaited “super app,” called TataNeu, to the public on April 7, the company has revealed on its app and Play Store page.
TataNeu is many 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 US e-commerce group Amazon and local billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms that have scaled to new heights over the past decade while Tata focused on more legacy businesses.
The app clubs several of the Tata Group services, including some like online store BigBasket and e-pharmacy platform 1Mg that the company has bought in recent years. TataNeu will also offer users the ability to send money to people and pay bills for broadband, electricity, water and satellite TV and secure loans, TechCrunch previously reported.
Tata hopes customers will find its one-stop shop offering and rewards high enough to make the bold switch. Tata plans to offer them “NeuCoins” as a reward, where one NeuCoin is equivalent to one Indian rupee.
The company, which has been testing TataNeu with tens of thousands of its employees for several quarters, plans to eventually phase out various group unit loyalty offers from BigBasket, 1mg and other services and replace them with NeuCoins, TechCrunch previously reported.
The rewards are one of the key focuses for the Tata Group as it seeks to build a “connectivity layer” for its services that operate across 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 company confirmed to India’s Economic Times — to raise capital for its newfound tech ambitions.
Screenshots of TataNeu app. (Credit: TechCrunch)
TechCrunch reported in February that Tata was nearing the launch of the app. We also got our hands on a newly built app and access to the service.
From our early impression:
Despite the delays, TataNeu looks anything but modern, and executives at the company are still trying to figure out how to attract 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 only point to various Tata services via an in-app browser – sometimes using the desktop view of a phone.
