Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding and its financial arm Ant Financial Services are injecting fresh capital into Paytm, India’s leading mobile payment and e-commerce platform.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding and its financial arm Ant Financial Services are injecting fresh capital into Paytm, India’s leading mobile payment and e-commerce platform. The companies declined to reveal the amount raised. While for Alibaba it’s the first investment foray into Paytm, Ant Financial made its initial investment in the company in February this year for a 25% stake.
According to a Reuters report, the amount raised is around $600 million, taking the total holdings of Alibaba and Ant Financial in Paytm to around 40%, valuing the company at $4 billion.
Commenting on the investment, Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group, said, “India is an important emerging market with strong e-commerce potential. Supporting the success of local homegrown entrepreneurial companies has been an important part of Alibaba Group’s globalization strategy. This investment will further expand Alibaba Group’s global footprint to India’s thriving mobile commerce market.”
Paytm said the fresh funds will be used to scale operations and develop its vibrant mobile commerce and payment ecosystem in India, and also for marketing, technology and talent. Paytm, the consumer brand of mobile internet company One97 Communications, had recently crossed the 100 million user mark.
In August, founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma received the payment bank licence from RBI, the operations for which are likely to commence during the second half of 2016. Paytm’s other investors include SAIF Partners, Sapphire Venture and Silicon Valley Bank.
Sharma said that with the Alibaba and Ant Financial partnerships, the company aims to bring half a billion Indians to the mainstream economy and help millions of small businesses leverage this large m-commerce opportunity.
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