NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: Alibaba, the world's biggest and most valuable ecommerce firm, has finally moved to pitch its flag in India. An Alibaba affiliate, Ant Financial Services Group, said on Thursday it had signed a deal to buy a 25% stake in Indian mobile payments and ecommerce platform Paytm owner One97 Communications. While both sides did not reveal financial details, three sources familiar with the deal said Ant would initially pay around $200 million for the stake and stump up $375 million more in tranches based on the firm meeting performance milestones. ET had last month reported Alibaba was in talks to buy into Paytm, heralding the Chinese firm's indirect entry into a market potentially as big as the one back home.
Speaking to ET over phone, Cyril Han, vice-president of Ant Financial, said the deal that seeks to effectively pump money into Delhi-based Paytm — India's largest mobile commerce platform with nearly 25 million orders a month and more than 23 million mobile wallet users — will close in the second quarter of this year. Paytm offers recharges, tickets and deals besides hosting an integrated marketplace where it offers bargains to shoppers purchasing clothing, shoes, accessories and other goods.
"India is a very important market for us because the population of 1 billion is just as large as China, while we also see the smartphone growth in India as more users will use mobile phones for payments and shopping," Han said, explaining the rational investing in a mobile commerce player in the Indian market.
Alibaba is the last of the global ecommerce biggies to have a presence in India's red-hot marketplace for online shopping. Its global peers Amazon and eBay already have sizeable Indian operations. Neither Han nor One97 Communications and Paytm's founder Vijay Shekar Sharma divulged financial details of the deal or how much it valued the Indian firm at. However, the sources close to the transaction said the latest deal tranche valued One97 at around $800 million and the valuation could rise to as much as $1.5 billion with the subsequent fund infusions pegged to performance milestones.
ET had reported last month that Paytm was likely to get a funding of about $575 million from Alibaba for 25-30% stake in the company, and that others in fray to invest in the Indian company included Singapore's Temasek, New Yorkbased Tiger Global and ecommerce firm Amazon. The report also said existing investor SAIF Partners will participate in the funding round to maintain its 40% equity level while Vijay Shekhar Sharma, chairman and managing director of One97, would dilute his stake in favour of new investors. SAIF Partners invested $10 million in the latest round to maintain its stake at 40%. Other investors in One97 include Intel Capital, Sapphire Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank, and their holdings were not immediately known.
Speaking to ET over phone, Cyril Han, vice-president of Ant Financial, said the deal that seeks to effectively pump money into Delhi-based Paytm — India's largest mobile commerce platform with nearly 25 million orders a month and more than 23 million mobile wallet users — will close in the second quarter of this year. Paytm offers recharges, tickets and deals besides hosting an integrated marketplace where it offers bargains to shoppers purchasing clothing, shoes, accessories and other goods.
"India is a very important market for us because the population of 1 billion is just as large as China, while we also see the smartphone growth in India as more users will use mobile phones for payments and shopping," Han said, explaining the rational investing in a mobile commerce player in the Indian market.
Alibaba is the last of the global ecommerce biggies to have a presence in India's red-hot marketplace for online shopping. Its global peers Amazon and eBay already have sizeable Indian operations. Neither Han nor One97 Communications and Paytm's founder Vijay Shekar Sharma divulged financial details of the deal or how much it valued the Indian firm at. However, the sources close to the transaction said the latest deal tranche valued One97 at around $800 million and the valuation could rise to as much as $1.5 billion with the subsequent fund infusions pegged to performance milestones.
ET had reported last month that Paytm was likely to get a funding of about $575 million from Alibaba for 25-30% stake in the company, and that others in fray to invest in the Indian company included Singapore's Temasek, New Yorkbased Tiger Global and ecommerce firm Amazon. The report also said existing investor SAIF Partners will participate in the funding round to maintain its 40% equity level while Vijay Shekhar Sharma, chairman and managing director of One97, would dilute his stake in favour of new investors. SAIF Partners invested $10 million in the latest round to maintain its stake at 40%. Other investors in One97 include Intel Capital, Sapphire Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank, and their holdings were not immediately known.
of
new investors. SAIF Partners invested $10 million in the latest round
to maintain its stake at 40%. Other investors in One97 include Intel
Capital, Sapphire Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank, and their holdings
were not immediately known.
investing in a mobile commerce player in the Indian market.
Alibaba is the last of the global ecommerce biggies to have a presence in India's red-hot marketplace for online shopping. Its global peers Amazon and eBay already have sizeable Indian operations. Neither Han nor One97 Communications and Paytm's founder Vijay Shekar Sharma divulged financial details of the deal or how much it valued the Indian firm at. However, the sources close to the transaction said the latest deal tranche ..
Alibaba is the last of the global ecommerce biggies to have a presence in India's red-hot marketplace for online shopping. Its global peers Amazon and eBay already have sizeable Indian operations. Neither Han nor One97 Communications and Paytm's founder Vijay Shekar Sharma divulged financial details of the deal or how much it valued the Indian firm at. However, the sources close to the transaction said the latest deal tranche ..
more
in tranches based on the firm meeting performance milestones. ET had
last month reported Alibaba was in talks to buy into Paytm, heralding
the Chinese firm's indirect entry into a market potentially as big as
the one back home.
Speaking to ET over phone, Cyril Han, vice-president of Ant Financial, said the deal that seeks to effectively pump money into Delhi-based Paytm — India's largest mobile commerce platform with nearly 25 million orders a month and more than 23 million mobile ..
Speaking to ET over phone, Cyril Han, vice-president of Ant Financial, said the deal that seeks to effectively pump money into Delhi-based Paytm — India's largest mobile commerce platform with nearly 25 million orders a month and more than 23 million mobile ..
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