Paytm to raise $ 300-500 million for local e-commerce

BENGALURU / MUMBAI: Paytm's parent company, One97 Communications, raises $ 300-500 million to expand its online retail business and allow customers to use its platform to make payments . Renu Satti, who headed the Paytm's Payments Bank, has resigned from his current position and will badume the role of COO at New Retail, as is called vertical.

Paytm is currently in talks with US-based investors as well as with its current shareholder – SoftBank – for the latest financing, which is expected to value the digital payment business at around $ 10 billion , according to sources. The new funding will be aimed at the hyper-local O2O business, which aims to consolidate the steps for offline stores by offering deals and discounts through the Paytm app. Buyers pay via QR codes in these stores, increasing the transaction numbers for the digital payment reader. For now, merchants will not be charged a commission by Paytm. However, they will have to pay a fee for logistics and marketing costs.

Paytm has diversified into the box office of films and events and in hotel bookings, among others, to develop transactions. Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said, "Paytm wants to enable commerce in one city and help restaurants, grocery stores and pharmacies grow their business through offers and offers.

Paytm Mall, which has also rolled out the O2O trade model, will remain separate and target another type of use case. While Paytm's New Retail sells food, groceries and drugs, which are immediate needs, Paytm Mall's O2O model has focused on links to branded stores to facilitate deliveries.

New Retail will have no warehouse unlike the way the supply chain works for horizontal markets like Paytm Mall. Inspired by Chinese site Meituan-Dianping, a group buying site of local consumer goods and retail services, Paytm wants to focus on in-store trading through New Retail. Paytm says the transaction rate is $ 5 billion and the gross transaction value is $ 50 billion.