SoftBank-backed Paytm raises $660 mn from Alibaba arm Alipay, others; 2.6 mn shares to be allotted to investors

Bengaluru: Indian digital payments startup Paytm’s parent has raised nearly $660 million from investors including Alibaba’s Alipay, SoftBank’s SVF Panther (Cayman) and funds managed by T Rowe Price among others, according to a filing. The board of One 97 Communications Ltd will allot about 2.6 million shares to the investors, financial data accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler dated 12 December showed. This is SoftBank-backed Paytm’s second fundraise after the Japanese tech investment giant and other backers such as Ant Financial and T Rowe Price Associates pumped in $1 billion last month, valuing the company at $16 billion. [caption id=“attachment_5076101” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The headquarters of Paytm digital payments firm in Noida. Reuters[/caption] Paytm did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the latest funding. On 29 November, there were reports that Paytm was looking at raising another round of funding of $1 billion, and is in discussion with multiple investors, including former UK Prime Minister David Cameron. The funds would be used to expand the merchant offerings across India to equip them with technology and various other services. Last month, Paytm had raised $1 billion at a valuation of $16 billion from new and existing investors , including Japan’s SoftBank Group and China’s Ant Financial, in a fresh round of funding. Apart from Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, and SoftBank Vision Fund, new investors including T Rowe Price Associates and Discovery Capital, an existing shareholder of Paytm, also took part in the funding round. The country’s top financial technology firm has also plan to invest Rs 10,000 crore over the next three years in a bid to expand its services in tier-III cities and smaller towns of the country amid rising competing from rival companies like Google Pay. In August this year, the digital wallet company’s valuation had more than doubled to $15 billion in the latest investment round from about $6 billion in March 2017. The value of Paytm was clocked at $6-billion just before Japanese conglomerate SoftBank had pumped in $1.4 billion (over Rs 9,079 crore) in the Sharma-led company. He is the founder and CEO of One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm. In August this year, the digital payments firm had said it would invest Rs 750 crore to approximately double its monthly active user base on mobile to 250 million by March 2020. The company expects its Paytm Inbox service to accelerate the growth as it has garnered 27 million monthly active users and expects additional 60-70 million new customers to come on board by end of the current fiscal year. — With inputs from agencies