PAYTM/BLOOMBERG
Paytm is close to secure $2 billion of new financing from investors including Jack Ma’s Ant Financial and SoftBank Group, a mega-deal that is expected to raise the temperature in India’s increasingly heated financial payments arena, reported Bloomberg.
Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management is also in discussions to join a funding round that values the country’s top online financial services firm at $16 billion.
If a deal is finalised, Paytm could outstrip fellow high-profile Asian start-ups such as Grab and Gojek in valuation. Billionaire Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is raising capital to protect the start-up’s share of a potentially $1 trillion Indian payments market from newer entrants Facebook, Alphabet’s Google and Walmart-owned Flipkart’s PhonePe.
Over the past year, a string of new apps have made payments increasingly easy, bringing discounts and cash bonuses to young, smartphone-savvy users.
Paytm remains the leader for now. The firm has in a decade become India’s biggest digital payments brand, attracting big names in investing from Alibaba co-founder Ma and SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son to Warren Buffett.
Sharma got a huge boost in 2016 after India’s government moved to eliminate most of the nation’s paper money in circulation in a bid to curb corruption. His start-up, a pioneer in the country’s nascent field, saw tens of millions of consumers and hundreds of thousands of businesses sign up for digital services in a matter of months.
The Indian payments market remains a chaotic field where the rules are hazy on what players can offer, yet its promise has lured a string of competitors including Indian banks, its postal service and its richest man, Mukesh Ambani.
Credit Suisse Group now estimates that the Indian digital payments market will touch $1 trillion by 2023 from about $200 billion currently. Cash still accounts for 70 per cent of all Indian transactions by value, according to Credit Suisse, and neighbouring China is far more advanced with a mobile payments market worth more than $5 trillion.
Ant Financial, China’s largest provider of internet financial services and one of Paytm’s earliest backers, said that it will continue investing in mobile-payment providers around the world to boost offshore revenue and buttress itself against rising competition and tighter regulation at home.
MOST READ
INVESTMENT
India seizes Yes Bank, limits withdrawalsINVESTMENT
ING Groep plans to sell its Turkish unitINVESTMENT
SABB seeks to boost corporate lendingINVESTMENT
UBS launches new private client programINVESTMENT
Egypt plans to resume IPOs of parastatalsINVESTMENT
HSBC considering exiting from TurkeyINVESTMENT
Abu Dhabi’s Group 42 acquires BayanatINVESTMENT
Amanat considers stake in VPS HealthcareINVESTMENT
KIZAD, ECI partner to support UAE businessesINVESTMENT
Fiat Chrysler, PSA explore a potential mergerINVESTMENT
UBS investment bank job cuts reach EuropeINVESTMENT
Saudi Aramco plans to complete IPO this yearINVESTMENT
Emirates NBD’s launch of E20. credit positive
CPI Financial was established in Dubai in 1999 to meet the needs of an ever-expanding financial community, offering a comprehensive portfolio of market-leading products and services tailor-made for the banking and financial services sectors.
Loading More post
