Alibaba-backed Paytm, the India-based mobile payments company, is expanding by rolling out a mobile bill and tax payment tool for consumers in Canada.
According to a report in Bloomberg, as of Thursday (March 16) Canadian customers can use the Paytm app to pay for their phone, cable, internet and utility bills. Users are also able to use the app to pay for insurance and property taxes. Bloomberg cited an emailed statement from Paytm for the report. Paytm is no stranger to Canada, with a team of engineers and data scientist based in Toronto.
The move to expand into Canada comes just days after raising $200 million in a round led by Alibaba. According to a report, in a regulatory filing Paytm E-Commerce disclosed it raised $200 million in venture funding from venture capital fund SAIF Partners and Alibaba. With the investment, the Chinese eCommerce giant, through Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Pvt., gets a 36.31 percent stake after investing $177 million. SAIF Partners, which invested $23 million, gets a 4.66 percent stake with its investment.
Alibaba and Ant Financial, its affiliate company, already owned a 40 percent stake in Paytm with an investment of $500 million in 2015. Alibaba now holds a majority of Paytm E-Commerce with the latest investment. The report noted that last year Paytm announced it would spin off its eCommerce business from its payments business. Paytm is aiming to take on the leaders in eCommerce in India, which are currently Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal. Unnamed sources in the report said Paytm intends to sell nearly 1 billion products from merchants in Southeast Asia. If it does that, it will greatly surpass what its rivals are selling online.
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