PayTM has held initial talks with Japanese investment giant SoftBank for leading a $500-600 million financing round investment in its online marketplace Paytm Mall, according to a report published in Times of India.
As per the sources cited in the report, SoftBank is likely to put around $300 million into Paytm Mall, which is backed by Alibaba.
If the deal happens, it will be yet another Softbank's attempt to get hold on India's online retail market after the Japenese firm had led a whopping $2.5-billion funding at Flipkart through the gargantuan sized SoftBank Vision Fund earlier this year. The telecom and internet conglomerate is also the largest shareholder in Snapdeal, which the investor unsuccessfully tried to merge with Flipkart for a better part of this year.
To recall, PayTM had already raised $1.4 billion from SoftBank, in May this year and that was the largest funding round from a single investor for any technology startup in India. With that funding, Softbank grabbed 20% stake in One97 Communications, the parent company of PayTM.
According to a person cited in the Times of India report, he said, "The funding proposal is yet to be discussed with the company board. However, there are informal commitments that have come through from investors. They still need to set a valuation for the transaction as the initial capital from Alibaba and SAIF was an internal round." Currently, the Jack Ma-led Alibaba group holds over 50% stake in Paytm Mall, which came to life after the Noida-based One97 Communications separated its commerce and payments businesses.
To recall, Paytm Mall reported a Rs13.63 crore loss on total sales of Rs7.35 crore in the year ended 31 March 2017.
Paytm Mall is estimated to have clocked sales of around $350 million from this year's festive season sale, putting it in the third position after Amazon and Flipkart.
As per the sources cited in the report, SoftBank is likely to put around $300 million into Paytm Mall, which is backed by Alibaba.
If the deal happens, it will be yet another Softbank's attempt to get hold on India's online retail market after the Japenese firm had led a whopping $2.5-billion funding at Flipkart through the gargantuan sized SoftBank Vision Fund earlier this year. The telecom and internet conglomerate is also the largest shareholder in Snapdeal, which the investor unsuccessfully tried to merge with Flipkart for a better part of this year.
To recall, PayTM had already raised $1.4 billion from SoftBank, in May this year and that was the largest funding round from a single investor for any technology startup in India. With that funding, Softbank grabbed 20% stake in One97 Communications, the parent company of PayTM.
According to a person cited in the Times of India report, he said, "The funding proposal is yet to be discussed with the company board. However, there are informal commitments that have come through from investors. They still need to set a valuation for the transaction as the initial capital from Alibaba and SAIF was an internal round." Currently, the Jack Ma-led Alibaba group holds over 50% stake in Paytm Mall, which came to life after the Noida-based One97 Communications separated its commerce and payments businesses.
To recall, Paytm Mall reported a Rs13.63 crore loss on total sales of Rs7.35 crore in the year ended 31 March 2017.
Paytm Mall is estimated to have clocked sales of around $350 million from this year's festive season sale, putting it in the third position after Amazon and Flipkart.
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