Mumbai, Nov. 13: Ola, the country's largest taxi hailing service, has forayed into mobile payments by launching an app called Ola Money.

The move has put the company in direct competition with Paytm, Mobikwik and Freecharge.

Ola had earlier launched an app called Ola Store that enables individuals to order grocery items. It also has a food delivery service called Ola Cafe.

The company, which was founded in 2011 by IIT Bombay alumni Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, today said the Ola Money app could be used to recharge mobile phones and to send money to friends and family. Earlier, Ola Money was available with the Ola app and it enabled users to pay for their taxi fares. In August, the company announced partnerships with a host of online platforms such as Oyo Rooms, Lenskart, TineOwl and Saavn to allow customers to make cashless transactions.

The company said Ola Money was one of the leading wallets in the country with an average wallet size significantly higher than its peers. The wallet is available to over 40 million users.

"The launch of the Ola Money app is a big step towards simplifying payments for users across a wide range of products and services they use everyday. Ola Money has seen tremendous acceptance over the last three months since we opened it up for third-party merchants,"Aggarwal said.

"With the app enabling users to do a lot more, including mobile recharges and money transfers, we are excited about the possibilities that Ola Money brings for the millions who are beginning to prefer an easy to use mobile payment solution," he added.

Ola Money is powered by ZipCash in which Ola reportedly holds a minority stake. It will compete with Alibaba-backed Paytm that claims to have over 100 million users and Mobikwik that has more than 25 million customers.

The company said the Ola Money app would soon be used to pay utility bills across online and offline merchants and leading payment gateways.