Paytm to merge Little, Nearby; form largest online deal platform

Paytm, India’s largest electronic payment and e-commerce brand has announced to merge Little and Nearby to form the largest online deal discovery platform in India. According to Paytm, the company will hold a major stake in the merged entity.

Confirming the merger, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said, “The merger will strengthen Paytm’s presence in the offline commerce space. The combination of Nearbuy and Little will provide a great opportunity for us to reinforce our commitment to support small and large retailers in the new age of mobile commerce and payments.”

According to a press release issued by the company, “All the existing shareholders of Nearbuy, including Sequoia India, will have stakes in the merged entity. This partnership will further strengthen Paytm’s offerings for offline merchants by enabling them to acquire new customers through deals. Nearbuy and Little work with over 40,000 small and large merchants across the food, beauty and travel categories, besides others.”

As per reports, Paytm will benefit from the large number of merchant partnerships of both Nearbuy and Little.

The reports further said that it is planning to cross-sell deals by Paytm merchants on the two platforms and allow its merchant partners the opportunity to offer deals to acquire new customers, thus adding further to its overall consumer base.

Paytm and its early backer SAIF had invested $50 million to help Little co-founders Manish Chopra and Satish Mani to build the startup two years ago.