Google is upping its game in the race for India’s fast growing digital payments market.
The company has partnered with four Indian banks to allow users to get loans via Google Pay, it announced on Tuesday.
Customers of those banks who use the Google (GOOGL) payment platform can get “pre-approved instant loans” and have the money deposited immediately in their accounts through the app.
The feature should be rolled out within the next few weeks, said Caesar Sengupta, the executive spearheading Google’s push into emerging markets.
“We’re working to expand financial inclusion through Google Pay by making the entire loans process simpler, quicker and more direct,” Sengupta said at an event in New Delhi.
Google’s Indian payments app, launched a little less than a year ago as Google Tez, has around 22 million monthly active users. The company is rebranding the app as Google Pay to bring it under Google’s global digital payments umbrella.
“Over time we’ll bring many of these features to Google Pay users in other countries, just as we’ll bring features we’ve launched elsewhere to India,” Sengupta said.
Google’s push to grab more of India’s digital payments market pits it against global rivals such as Facebook (FB), which is testing a payments service in India on its messaging platform WhatsApp, and local rivals Paytm and Flipkart.
Market leader Paytm, which already counts heavyweights like China’s Alibaba (BABA) and Japan’s SoftBank (SFTBF) among its investors, will soon get another high-profile backer.
Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), the company led by renowned investor Warren Buffett, is set to invest up to $360 million in the Indian payments platform, a source told CNNMoney earlier this week.
CNNMoney (New Delhi) First published August 28, 2018: 9:13 AM ET
