Valuing India’s Paytm E-Commerce Private Limited at about $1 billion, China’s Alibaba Group Holding Limited, will invest $180-200 million in the online retailer, taking the stake of Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Financial to more than 50 percent.
Paytm e-Commerce is an entity created by Noida-based One97 Communications Ltd., which was valued at $5 billion last year, and e-commerce constitutes 20 percent of its business. Paytm will continue to be the vehicle for Alibaba’s e-commerce play in India, and is expected to spin off the e-commerce business into a new mobile application and a separate website in February, named PaytmMall—inspired by Alibaba’s T-mall in China, reports Mint.
Paytm, which started operations as a mobile payments and mobile recharge business, created a web of payment solutions in the offline and online channels where consumers can transact via the Paytm wallet. Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has India’s Central Bank’s approval to launch a payments bank by the end of February.
