BT Online Last Updated: April 28, 2017 | 12:34 IST
One97 Communications, owner of electronics payments provider Paytm, is set to raise more than Rs 12,000 crore ($1.87 billion) from Japan's SoftBank Group, the Economic Times reported on Friday citing sources. This will be the single-largest round of funding for an Indian digital commerce firm.
The deal will value Noida-based One97 at about $9 billion and provide a 20 percent stake to SoftBank, the report said.
Moreover, One97 plans to earmark nearly $1 billion to expand its payments business into high growth areas like lending and insurance, the report added.
SoftBank declined to comment. Paytm was not immediately reachable for comment.
Digital payments have assumed great significance in India after the decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government ban on old high-valued bank notes in November led to a severe cash crunch across the country.
SoftBank is the largest shareholder in Snapdeal, which is locked in an intense battle with Amazon India and Flipkart.
Paytm has seen manifold growth in transactions on its platform after the government scrapped high denomination notes in November last year.
SoftBank, which has committed an investment of over $10 billion in the Indian market, is also engaged in sale discussion for Snapdeal to rival Flipkart.
Paytm, which counts China's Alibaba as a prominent shareholder, was valued at about $5 billion last year when it had raised $60 million from Mediatek.
(With Reuters inputs)
