As part of the affiliation, HDFC Pension will manage pension contributions providing a seamless digital experience for on-boarding, account management and long-term retirement planning, while Urban Company will facilitate awareness and access to the program across its platform service partner network
Mumbai: HDFC Pension Fund Management (HDFC Pension) India’s largest corporate NPS Point of Presence and private sector Pension Fund, has entered into a collaboration with Urban Company to introduce the ‘National Pension System (NPS) Platform Workers Model’ for over 50,000 service partners on the Urban Company platform.
The initiative will enable Urban Company’s service professionals to voluntarily enrol in the NPS, a retirement savings scheme regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
Through this partnership, service professionals will gain simplified and seamless access to structured retirement planning.
HDFC Pension has pioneered the NPS Platform Workers’ space by becoming the first NPS PoP to partner with digital platform aggregators to help secure the retirement of gig workers. This collaboration with Urban Company will further enable their service professionals to access structured retirement planning with ease.
Through this partnership, service professionals can choose their contribution amount and through even small, regular contributions, they can build a retirement corpus for themselves. Benefits could be in the form of a lump sum or payouts in a fixed frequency such as every month. The HDFC Pension NPS platform also offers significant flexibility, including portability across platforms.
Additionally, the digital integration between both partners enables smooth KYC processes and easy on-boarding.
As part of the affiliation, HDFC Pension will manage pension contributions providing a seamless digital experience for on-boarding, account management and long-term retirement planning, while Urban Company will facilitate awareness and access to the program across its platform service partner network.
Commenting on the development, Abhiraj Singh Bhal – Co-founder and CEO, Urban Company, said “Our partnership with HDFC Pension marks a meaningful step towards institutionalising retirement planning for our service professionals. This builds on our long-standing investments in partner welfare: spanning skill development, insurance, access to credit and income stability, and reinforces our commitment to a more sustainable and inclusive ecosystem.”
Sriram Iyer, managing director & CEO, HDFC Pension, said, “Through the association with Urban Company, we are taking another productive step towards bridging this gap by making the National Pension System more accessible, simple and digitally enabled for platform workers. This initiative mirrors our commitment to expanding pension coverage and supporting long-term financial security for India’s growing gig economy.”
India’s platform workforce, estimated to reach 23.5 million by 2030, is largely excluded from the formal retirement planning pool owing to lack of awareness and access.
So far HDFC Pension has on-boarded close to one lakh gig workers via the NPS Platform Workers’ model through multiple collaborations. The framework allows gig workers associated with the platforms to make small, periodic contributions and build retirement savings that can be withdrawn as a lump sum and pension upon retirement.