Chennai: After raising $1 billion from new and existing investors, payments major, Paytm, plans to invest Rs 10,000 crore over the next three years as it looks to expand on its financial services.
According to the company, it raised the $1 billion from a group of investors, including existing shareholders such as Ant Financial, Softbank Vision Fund, and new investors including funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, among others.
Discovery Capital, an existing shareholder of the company, also participated in the round.
The proceeds will be directed towards further growing the payments and financial services business, the company said.
Paytm, which currently serves merchants in over 2,000 towns and cities, had pioneered the QR-code technology in the first phase of its growth. The firm now aims to bring low cost mobile-enabled financial services to rural parts of the country.
“We are committed to bringing half a billion Indians to the mainstream economy by on-boarding them in the formal financial ecosystem. This new investment by our current and new investors is a reaffirmation of our commitment to serve Indians with new age financial services,” Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm.
According to industry watchers, the company, which is is witnessing tough competition from Google Pay and Phonepe, could look at the B2B segment by adding the facility of credit. The B2B space offers very less competition and a large untapped market.
It had launched Paytm Money and wealth tech could be another area of focus. However, the company can also make bugger play for mutual funds due to its user base.
