The Walmart-backed fintech company OnePay is now offering wireless plans to its customers, following in the footsteps of Klarna and Nubank as fintechs seek to become one-stop "super apps" for their users.
OnePay launched its own branded wireless plan called OnePay Wireless on Wednesday. The wireless service is provided by Gigs, an operating system provider that lets tech companies offer mobile services. The launch was originally reported by CNBC, and OnePay declined to comment on the partnership.
OnePay is offering a single prepaid plan at $35 per 30-day billing cycle, according to the company. It provides unlimited talk, text and 5G data through AT&T, as well as 10GB of mobile hotspot data.
"The future is one where consumers can buy and manage their cellular plans from any number of personal or workplace apps they use every day," William Traylor, AT&T's vice president of emerging business platforms and partnerships, said in a statement.
Through Gigs, businesses can act as mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs, without hiring their own staff or building systems to support the business. MVNOs are companies that provide wireless communication services without owning network infrastructure. Klarna and NuBank also announced partnerships with Gigs earlier this summer to bring wireless phone plan offerings directly to their customers.
"[Fintech] is one of the most promising verticals on our platform," Gigs CEO Hermann Frank previously told American Banker. "It's the vertical that we see the most demand from. For us as a company, I believe we can scale this to hundreds of millions in revenue over a relatively short time frame. For the industry, we've now opened the gates so that anyone can easily improve their product offering at a very low cost and within a very short time frame without having to worry about any of the complexities."
Wireless services are the latest step in the supermarket's "super app" strategy, or a full menu of financial and nonfinancial products that can be easily accessed through a single account.
The retail giant has been challenging banks for years, from attempting to acquire a bank charter in 2006 to a short-lived credit card partnership with Capital One.
The big-box retailer previously announced a renewed credit card offering through Synchrony Financial in June of this year, with the cards being offered in the U.S. through OnePay this fall. The fintech currently offers cashback debit cards through Green Dot, digital wallets with peer-to-peer payment options, BNPL services through Klarna and a high-yield savings account provided by Coastal Community Bank.
OnePay is also backed by investment firm Ribbit Capital, which partnered with Walmart back in 2021 to help the retailer expand its fintech offerings. OnePay was formed in 2022 after Walmart acquired multiple other fintechs and combined them into a single provider to create its own "super app."
