Mobile commerce marketplace and digital wallet Paytm has raised an undisclosed amount in a fresh round of funding from Alibaba and Ant Financial. According to this ET report, the Alibaba Group will pick up about 20% stake in Paytm for about $680 million which will see Ant Financial’s stake lowered to 20%. The company will use the funds for developing technology, hiring, expanding operations and marketing. This is Alibaba’s first investment in the company. In February this year, Ant Financial Services, one of Alibaba’s affiliate companies, acquired 25% stake in One97 Communications for an undisclosed amount. A source-based report in January had said then that AliPay (operated by Ant Financial) would invest $575 million for a 30% stake. Post the fundraise, Paytm itself funded a few companies. These include the hyperlocal on-demand transport & delivery services provider Jugnoo, which raised $5 million in a series A round of funding led by Snow Leopard with participation from Paytm in June, and the hyperlocal deals marketplace ‘Little’ that raised $50 million from Paytm and other investors in July. More recently, the company invested $10 million in logistics data analytics firm LogiNext just this month. Paytm and Jabong: Interestingly, earlier this month a source-based report mentioned that Global Fashion Group (GFG) which owns fashion etailer Jabong, was looking to sell the ecommerce platform to Paytm. The report added that AB Kinnevik was also holding negotiations on behalf of Rocket Internet and that the talks were in initial stages with the company being valued at…
