Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and its finance arm Ant Financial Services have agreed to make a strategic investment in Indian mobile payment and e-commerce firm Paytm, which is run by One 97 Communications.
However, the investment details were not revealed.
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Ant Financial made its initial investment in Paytm in February 2015. After the completion of the transaction, Alibaba will now become a new investor in Paytm.
"Ant Financial and Paytm will continue to capitalize on opportunities in mobile wallet to offer Indian consumers comprehensive products and services and to tap the significant potential of the India mobile payment market," Alibaba said in a statement.
Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said: "India is an important emerging market with strong e-commerce potential, and we look forward to partnering with Paytm to deliver innovative products and services to consumers.
"Supporting the success of local homegrown entrepreneurial companies has long been an important part of Alibaba Group’s globalization strategy. This investment will further expand Alibaba Group’s global footprint to India’s thriving mobile commerce market."
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By GlobalDataPaytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said: "Paytm is building India’s most dominant mobile payment and commerce ecosystem. With the Alibaba and Ant Financial partnerships, we look to bring half a billion Indians to the mainstream economy and help millions of small businesses leverage this large m-commerce opportunity."
Citi acted as exclusive financial advisor to Paytm on this transaction.
