FreeCharge dismisses reports on talks with PayPal for stake sale

Dismissing reports that global payments platform PayPal is set to buy a 25 percent stake in homegrown e-wallet FreeCharge, a company spokesperson has denied any such development. Media reports claimed on Sunday that PayPal is expected to take a significant stake in FreeCharge for around $200 million. “There is no basis to a speculative media story about FreeCharge and PayPal being in discussion about a stake sale. There is no such discussion/proposal and the story is completely incorrect,” a FreeCharge spokesperson said in a statement on Monday. Within the first 24 hours of the announcement of demonetisation, the wallet loads of Snapdeal-owned mobile transactions platform FreeCharge grew 12 times and has been increasing by the same average since then. “Within the first 24 hours, wallet loads grew by 12x versus the 30 days average before,” Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl had told IANS. The number of people downloading the Freecharge app, registrations for mobile wallet, transactions on third party merchants – are all growing by 10-15 times on a per day average basis, Bahl added. Founded in 2010, FreeCharge was acquired by Snapdeal in April last year for nearly $450 million. IANS