India’s Paytm has raised $200 million from China’s Alibaba Group Holding and venture capital fund SAIF Partners to expand its online retail business in a market dominated by homegrown Flipkart and U.S. tech giant Amazon.
With this Paytm’s e-commerce unit has become the latest Indian unicorn startup (term for a company valued at over a billion dollars).
Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Pvt Ltd picked up a 36.31 percent stake in Paytm E-Commerce for investing $177 million, according to a regulatory filing by the Indian company that runs an online marketplace. Alibaba and its associates are also the largest shareholders in One97 Communications, which has a stake in Paytm E-Commerce.
SAIF Partners’ $23 million investment will give it a 4.66 percent stake in Paytm E-Commerce, the filing showed.
Alibaba Group is looking to invest outside China as growth slows at home.
In its biggest overseas deal, Alibaba in April agreed to buy a controlling stake in Southeast Asian online retailer Lazada Group for about $1 billion.
Paytm Payments Bank Ltd, another company of the group, houses its electronic payment wallets and planned payments bank business.
Paytm has said its e-wallet service has more than 200 million clients in India.