"In India Sodexo offers meal and gift vouchers. But globally we have a suite of products and we are looking to expand our products offering in India. Going ahead, we will look at a comprehensive employee benefit platform. In the near term we will offer fuel, medical, mobile, Leave Travel Allowance reimbursement, in addition to meal and gift benefits," said Suvodeep Das, Vice-president-Marketing Suvodeep Das, Vice President Marketing at Sodexo India.
Sodexo has three million consumers and 11,000 clients, including small and medium enterprises, IT companies and public sector undertakings. The company launched a meal card two years back and a mobile wallet earlier this year. While the voucher is accepted in 1,500 cities, the card is accepted in 700 cities. Over the next two months, the card will be accepted across all 1,500 cities.
"We have set up a proprietary network -- either our dedicated swipe machine or if it is a shared machine it has a separate software patch to accept Sodexo. This is necessary because the meal benefit has a tax benefit and law states that the card can be used only for food and non-alcoholic beverages,'' Das said.
Zeta, which started offering digital solutions for employee benefits two years back, has a client base of over 800 plus corporates spread over 100,000 end users. Bhavin Turakhia, Founder & CEO of Zeta, said, "In partnership with Sodexo we can reach a larger number of clients and customers, faster and help them benefit from the savings and simplicity our technology can offer."
The digital format will make it easier to offer additional employee benefits. For instance, if a corporate has a tie-up with a fitness centre or a gymnasium for its employees, payments could be made through the card.
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