Paytm Mall raises Rs1,500 crore from SoftBank, Alibaba

Bengaluru: Online retailer Paytm Mall has raised about ₹ 1,500 crore from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. and existing investor Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, as part of the ₹ 3,000 crore funding commitment that was initially announced in April, Paytm Mall said in a filing with the Registrar of Companies.

The third tranche also saw SoftBank’s Kabir Misra joining the Paytm Mall board, according to documents sourced from business intelligence platform paper.vc. According to Paytm Mall spokesperson, Michael Evans, president of Alibaba, has also stepped down from the Paytm Mall board.

In April, Paytm’s biggest investor Alibaba, and Japan’s SoftBank, together pledged to invest a total of ₹ 3,000 crore ($450 million) into Paytm Mall. SoftBank plans to invest a total of ₹ 2,600 crore in Paytm Mall, with the rest coming from Alibaba.

The deal values Paytm Mall (Paytm E-commerce Pvt. Ltd), between $1.6 billion and $2 billion, two people close to the development said on condition of anonymity, when the funding was announced.

The development comes soon after SoftBank and Tiger Global spearheaded one of the largest sales in e-commerce history—the $16 billion acquisition of Flipkart by Walmart Inc., which was announced last month. SoftBank’s investment in Paytm Mall is its second investment in an online retailer in India. Paytm Mall directly competes with Flipkart.

Paytm Mall currently claims a run rate of $3 billion in gross merchandising value (GMV) and is also aiming to touch a $10 billion run rate by the end of fiscal 2018-2019.

According to the company’s earlier statement, offline stores registered on the Paytm Mall platform generate more than 60% of sales. It currently has partnerships with around 75,000 stores and aims to triple its offline presence by the end of 2019.