BackPaytm floats two new insurance entities
The two entitiesPaytm Life Insurance Ltd and Paytm General Insurance Corp. Ltdregistered with the RoC, indicate that the firm will look at offering differentiated insurance products
Premium
Digital payments firm Paytm, owned by One97 Communication Ltd, has registered two new insurance units with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), implying a foray into standalone insurance products.
The two entities—Paytm Life Insurance Ltd, and Paytm General Insurance Corporation Ltd— registered on 21 February, indicate the company will look at offering differentiated insurance products like health insurance, motor insurance and others.
According to the RoC documents that were sourced from data intelligence platform Paper.VC, the company has three directors One97 founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, senior vice president-Paytm Shankar Nath and Paytm chief financial officer Madhur Deora.Mint could not ascertain the ownership structure of the company. Paytm declined to comment.
As per regulatory norms, non-life insurance and general insurance products require separate registrations.
Mint reported in November 2016 that One97 planned to sell products such as loans, insurance and wealth management to drive revenues. Paytm was in active talks with banks to offer financial products like insurance, loans and mutual funds to Paytm Payments Bank account holders.
Paytm Payments Bank started operations in May last year, with its first branch in Noida. It offers a zero-balance savings account with facilities like online transactions, debit card and a 4% per annum interest on deposit of up to ₹ lakh.
In January, the company launched a new investment arm named Paytm Money Ltd to offer investment and wealth management products. It also pledged to invest close to $10 million upfront in the new entity. Paytm Money is yet to get approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
Paytm Money is the fourth product from One97 after its online shopping product Paytm Mall, Paytm Payments Bank and Paytm wallet. Paytm’s owner One97 was valued at over $7 billion in May 2017 when the company raised $1.5 billion from SoftBank. The company currently has over 200 million registered users on its platform.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
