Rhea Liu
Alibaba’s financial branch, Ant Financial, has acquired 20% of Paytm, an Indian mobile payment platform, for USD 680 million, India’s The Economic Times reported on Tuesday. The investment boosts Paytm’s valuation to USD 400 million.
Ant Financial also acquired 25% of Paytm’s parent company, One97 Communications, with USD 500 million in February this year. One97’s previous investors have included SAIF Partners, Intel Capital and SAP Ventures, the company claims.
Paytm was founded in 2012. It is now India’s biggest mobile e-commerce platform.
Its mobile payment system has over 100 million users with over 75 million monthly transactions. Paytm also runs its own e-commerce platform apart from its mobile payment business.
The investment will be used for marketing, technical development, and talent recruitment, according to a company statement.
“This investment will help Alibaba enter India’s fast developing mobile e-commerce market and further expand Alibaba’s reach in the world.” Zhang Yong, Alibaba’s CEO said at the press conference.
It was also reported on Tuesday that Alibaba’s mobile payment system, Alipay, has entered the Japanese market through a collaboration with Recruit Group, which has a POS network with over 176,000 stores in Japan.
