Paytm has announced an investment of US $1.4 billion by the SoftBank Group, the Japanese Internet and telecom major, in One97 Communications Limited, the entity that operates India’s largest mobile payments and commerce platform under the Paytm brand. This investment will help Paytm grow its leadership in the country’s payment ecosystem, expand its user base and build a suite of financial services products for its users.
Paytm plans to invest Rs 10,000 crore (approximately US $1.6bn) over the next three to five years towards its commitment to enabling half a billion Indians to join the mainstream economy. As a part of this vision, the company will soon launch the Paytm Payments Bank, a mobile-first product that will reach every corner of the nation, and focus on the millions of unserved and under-served Indians.
Speaking on the occasion, Founder & CEO, Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma said, “We are at an inflection point in our journey with Paytm. This investment by Softbank and support of the incredible entrepreneur Masa Son is a great endorsement of our team’s execution and vision.We believe we have a great opportunity to bring financial inclusion to half a billion Indians.”
Said Chairman & CEO, SoftBank Group Corp., Masayoshi Son, “In line with the Indian government’s vision to promote digital inclusion, we are committed to transforming the lives of hundreds of millions of Indian consumers and merchants by providing them digital access to a broad array of financial services, including mobile payments. We are excited to partner with Paytm in this journey and will provide them with all our support.”
Added CEO – Ant Financial, Eric Jing, “India has presented us with the world’s largest opportunity in terms of financial services and we are confident its market will grow exponentially over the next decade. We are proud to be Paytm’s strategic partner and be a part of the great story as it emerges as the country’s biggest and fastest growing fintech company. We will continue to extend our tech know-how to support Paytm’s growth in the country. And we welcome SoftBank to a great ride together to provide equal access to financial services in India.”
Paytm’s zero cost QR Code-based payment solution has been adopted by millions of merchants and has become synonymous to digital payments in India. In addition, Paytm is India’s largest bill payment and recharge platform. There has also been a significant uptake in its movie ticketing, and travel booking (rail, bus and flight tickets) businesses. Paytm has recently collaborated with MMTC-PAMP to launch digital gold on its platform. The company continues to innovate in the offline payments space to enable digital transactions for consumers across multiple facets of everyday life.
Paytm is an Indian payments company based out of Delhi NCR, India. Acronym for ‘Pay Through Mobile’, it was launched in August 2010 as an online recharges and bill payments platform and soon expanded into ubiquitous online and offline use-cases. In January 2014, it launched the Paytm Wallet, which has emerged as India’s biggest digital wallet with over 220 million users and is accepted as the preferred mode of payment by over 5 million offline merchants across India.
In January 2014, it launched the Paytm Wallet, which has emerged as India’s biggest digital wallet with over 220 million users and is accepted as the preferred mode of payment by over 5 million offline merchants across India
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