PayTM, the Indian payments start-up supported by Alibaba of China, plans to invest Rs50bn ($764m) in an aggressive three-year expansion, as it aims to become India’s largest ecommerce group by revenue.
In September, PayTM completed a second funding round from Alibaba and its online payments affiliate Ant Financial, bringing its total Chinese funding to $680m. The deal valued PayTM at $2.5bn, making it one of India’s most valuable start-ups.
PayTM founder Vijay Sharma told the Financial Times he would use the funds to increase sharply the number of merchants selling on its online marketplace — most of whom are small businesses — from about 100,000 today to 1m by 2018.
www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/...-93c6-bba4b4b36134.html#axzz3qMy895rp