At a time when Indian startups are struggling to raise funds and are witnessing valuation mark downs, mobile payment platform Paytm is all set to raise $300 million (approximately Rs 2,000 crore), reports Economic Times.
This round of fundraising will see the entry of new players such as Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek and Wall Street major Goldman Sachs apart from existing investors like Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and SAIF Partners.
The company has a valuation of $2.9 billion currently, but the figure will jump to $5 billion after the deal is sealed. And it could possibly be the largest funding for an Indian startup this year!
As opposed to last year, this year investments in the Indian startup sector have been quite dull with major e-commerce players like Snapdeal and Flipkart finding it hard to raise capital at their existing valuation.
The pace of venture capital investments dropped to about $2.7 billion in the first two quarters this year from a record $8.9 billion in 2015, according to a Bloomberg report which cited data by investment firm Preqin.
So, Paytm’s success certainly is a bright spot for venture investments in India.
With the funds raised in the latest round, Paytm surges ahead of big names Flipkart and Snapdeal in terms of accumulating funds this year. The funds that Paytm acquires from this round of funding will also be used for its upcoming payments bank, the payments business and e-commere operations.