India's Paytm E-Commerce raises $200 million from Alibaba, SAIF Partners

[March 03, 2017]  MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Paytm E-Commerce Pvt Ltd 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.

Advertisements of Paytm, a digital wallet company, are seen placed at stalls of roadside vegetable vendors in Mumbai, India, November 19, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade

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.

(Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.