Paytm raises another $669.5 million from existing investors
Just a couple of weeks after raising a whopping $1 billion, One97 Communications, the parent of digital payments giant Paytm, has raised $669.5 million (roughly Rs. 4,724 crore) in another round of funding. The latest investment was reportedly led by the company's existing investor Alipay, along with participation from SoftBank and T Rowe Price. Here's more about it.
Paytm: A leading player in digital payments space
Paytm was started in 2010 by Vijay Shekhar Sharma to make digital payments safe and universally acceptable. The platform has such a humongous user-base of merchants and consumers that you can even make online payments at roadside tea-stalls via Paytm. Apart from digital transactions, it also offers services ranging from online mobile recharge and bill payments to movie/travel bookings, shopping, credit cards, among others.
Here are the details of Paytm's latest fund-raise
Out of the total $669.5 million raised, Alibaba Group-owned Alipay has pumped around $202.6 million (nearly Rs. 1,433 crore), while SoftBank and T Rowe Price have infused $202.2 million (nearly Rs. 1,430 crore) and $155.5 million (nearly Rs. 1,100 crore), respectively. The rest of the amount invested in Paytm came from Saudi Arabia-based Samba Financial Group, Seoul-based Hana Investment Company, and other investors.
Recently, Paytm had raised $1 billion
Prior to this investment, Paytm had raised $1 billion last month. The investment came from Ant Financial and SoftBank Vision Fund among other investors and took the unicorn's valuation close to a humongous $16 billion - the most for any start-up in India.
How these funds will be utilized?
After that $1 billion fund-raise, Vikas Garg, the CFO of Paytm, detailed Paytm's future plan of action. "With this investment, we will double down on online and offline payment products and businesses," he had told Financial Express, adding that "We will also invest this money to build financial services for common people, especially those who are left out from the formal financial services ecosystem."
Paytm's arch-rival PhonePe raised $82.5 million recently
Apart from Paytm, the digital payments space in India is dominated by big players like Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and Walmart-owned PhonePe. Out of them, the latter received $82.5 million from its Singapore-based parent just a couple of days back and is reportedly in talks with giants like Tiger Global and Tencent to raise another $1 billion.
