India’s financial services firm Paytm raises $1B

Paytm said on Monday it has raised $1 billion in a new financing round as the Noida-headquartered firm, which once dominated the local mobile payments market, attempts to fight back giants Google, Walmart’s PhonePe, and soon-to-arrive Facebook.

The company said the new financing round was led by U.S. asset manager T Rowe Price. Existing investors Ant Financials (contributed $400 million), SoftBank Vision Fund (contributed $200 million), and Discovery Capital also participated in the round, which valued the company at about $16 billion.

Paytm founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma said the firm will use the fresh capital to court merchants, and expand its financial offerings such as lending and insurance. The company has amassed 15 million merchants, he said.

More to follow…

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