Paytm Mall Announces Funding From SoftBank, Alibaba

Paytm Mall has raised about Rs. 2,900 crores in its latest round of funding led by SoftBank and existing investor Alibaba. SoftBank is also an investor in Paytm, while online retail rival Flipkart also received funding from the Japanese company last year.

The deal values Paytm Mall at roughly $2 billion (roughly Rs. 13,007 crores), Business Standard reports, and cites a regulatory filing to note that $400 million (roughly Rs. 2,600 crores) came from SB Investment Holdings and its affiliates, while about $45 million (roughly Rs. 290 crores) came from Alibaba.com Singapore E-commerce. The funding will be received in four tranches, the Mint reported, citing documents from Paper.vc. The first tranche of Rs. 357.5 crores has already made its way to Paytm Mall.

Paytm Mall confirmed the new round of funding in a statement. Amit Sinha, COO of Paytm Mall, said, "This latest investment lead by SoftBank and Alibaba reaffirms the strength of our business model, growth trajectory, execution capability and the potential of India's massive O2O model in the retail space."

Sinha added, "We are committed to increasing the business growth for the offline merchants, who serve their customers' daily. The funds will be deployed for empowering the shopkeepers with technology, building superior logistics, strengthening the Paytm Mall brand and bringing an enriching experience to the customers."

Paytm Mall is run by Paytm Ecommerce, a separate entity from Paytm and incorporated in 2016 by One97 Communications. Talks about a SoftBank investment in Paytm Mall had been reported as far back as November last year, soon after Flipkart received what was called the 'biggest private investment in an Indian tech company' from SoftBank in August. Sister company Paytm had received $1.4 billion (roughly Rs. 9,074 crores at the time) from SoftBank back in May last year.

Disclosure: Paytm's parent company One 97 is an investor in Gadgets 360.​