Brands
Ola partners with PhonePe for cab bookings
MUMBAI: Flipkart-owned UPI-based payment platform PhonePe has partnered with taxi aggregator Ola. With this tie-up, users will be able to book an Ola cab using the PhonePe app.
With both the companies already catering to a large user base, this also becomes the first large scale implementation of AutoPay (through standing instructions) for ride bookings in India.
Phone Pe co-founder and CTO Rahul Chari says, “With this partnership our users can enjoy the ease of using their preferred ride sharing app from within PhonePe while being assured of the reliability and integrity of their payments. Ola’s scale and reach, topped with our Auto-pay feature will enable greater convenience and control to our users while making payments seamless.”
Ola co-founder and CTO Ankit Bhati thinks that duch partnerships drive the vision of Digital India, getting more users to experience the benefits of online services.
The Ola micro-app is also a big technology milestone for PhonePe as it has been built ground-up by the PhonePe team using the Ola developer platform. It is the first of its kind mapping application using react native that provides not just location but navigation with directionality, matching the experience of native iOS and Android maps.
This partnership is part of PhonePe’s vision of being an open payments ecosystem, enabling businesses of all sizes to build and deploy apps on its platform with a unified login and payments experience for its users.
PhonePe is also adding partners in the travel, hospitality, ticketing and food segments to its micro-app platform.
Brands
Lululemon picks former Nike executive to be its next chief
Heidi O’Neill, who helped grow Nike into a $45 billion giant, will take the top job in September
CANADA: Lululemon has found its next chief executive, and she comes with serious credentials. The athleisure giant named Heidi O’Neill as its new CEO on Wednesday, ending a search that has left the company running on interim leadership since earlier this year. O’Neill will take charge on September 8, 2026, based out of Vancouver, and will join the board on the same day.
O’Neill brings more than three decades of experience across performance apparel, footwear and sport. The bulk of that time was spent at Nike, where she was a central figure in one of corporate sport’s great growth stories, helping take the company from a $9 billion business to a $45 billion global powerhouse. She oversaw product pipelines, brand strategy and consumer connections, and played a significant role in shaping how Nike spoke to athletes around the world. Earlier in her career, she worked in marketing for the Dockers brand at Levi Strauss. She also brings boardroom experience from Spotify Technology, Hyatt Hotels and Lithia and Driveway.
The board was unequivocal in its enthusiasm. “We selected Heidi because of the breadth of her experience, her demonstrated success delivering breakthrough ideas and initiatives at scale, and her ability to be a knowledgeable change and growth agent,” said Marti Morfitt, executive chair of Lululemon’s board.
O’Neill, for her part, was bullish. “Lululemon is an iconic brand with something rare: genuine guest love, a product ethos rooted in innovation, and a global platform still in the early stages of its potential,” she said. “My job will be to accelerate product breakthroughs, deepen the brand’s cultural relevance, and unlock growth in markets around the world.”
Until she arrives, Meghan Frank and André Maestrini will continue as interim co-CEOs, before returning to their previous senior leadership roles once O’Neill steps in.
Lululemon is betting that a Nike veteran who helped build one of the world’s most powerful sports brands can do something similar for an athleisure label that has genuine love from its customers but is still chasing its full global potential. O’Neill has done it before at scale. The question now is whether she can do it again.
