The ecommerce arm of Indian fintech giant Paytm has raised $445 million from Japan's Softbank and China's Alibaba. Softbank is pumping $400 million into Paytm Mall, while Alibaba is contributing $45 million - a year after it took a majority stake in the unit through a $177 million investment. The deal values Paytm at nearly $2 billion, with Alibaba holding a 46% stake and Softbank a 21% slice. With its huge mobile payments userbase and Alibaba's ecommerce nous, Paytm Mall is aiming to become a major player in India's ecommerce sector, taking on the likes of Amazon and FlipKart. Says a Softbank statement: "We believe Paytm Mall’s offline-to-online operating model, combined with the strength of the Paytm ecosystem, is uniquely positioned to enable India’s 15 million offline retail shops to participate in India’s e-commerce boom."
Paytm Mall, the e-commerce business of Indian financial services firm Paytm, has been valued at almost $2bn after a $445m investment from Softbank and Alibaba. The company said on Tuesday that it had raised $400m in new funding to expand its operations into India with plans for more than 100 stores by 2020. Paytm Mall is looking to rival Flipkart and Amazon, using an offline-to-inline approach and its parent company's payments ecosystem to target India's 15 million offline retailers.