Indian e-commerce and payments firm Paytm is to expand into insurance, lending, stockbroking and investments after receiving a whopping $1 billion round of funding.
The new round was led by T Rowe Price and also included an injection of $200 million by existing investor SoftBank and $400 million from China's Ant Financial. Discovery Capital also participated.
The new capital values Paytm at $16 billion. The firm has raised a total of $3.5 billion since inception, with SoftBank holding a 19% stake and Ant Financial and parent company Alibaba commanding 38%.
SoftBank, still smarting from is massive miscalculation with WeWork, is understood to have insisted on an IPO within five years in return for its participation in the current round.
Paytm says it will invest $1.4 billion over the next three years to export its brand into adjacent financial products.
Paytm founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma, says: “This new investment by our current and new investors is a reaffirmation of our commitment to serve Indians with new-age financial services.”