Paytm has raised $1.4 billion from SoftBank Group Corp. This will be one biggest investment from the Japanese Internet and Telecom major in any Indian startup and also the largest round raised by Paytm. The company plans to invest the fresh funding over the next three to five years in expanding the user base and towards Paytm Payments Bank, the company said in a statement. Note that just yesterday, the company announced that it will commence operations of the bank on May 23 with Renu Satti as its CEO. Currently, Paytm claims to have a user base of 220 million and aims to increase this to 500 million. Snapdeal and Freecharge The investment comes at a time when there are unconfirmed reports of Softbank, which is the largest investor in Snapdeal, brokering a deal with Flipkart for its sale. There were also unconfirmed reports about Paytm signing a term sheet to acquire rival Freecharge, which is owned by Snapdeal. SoftBank investments in India Note, just earlier this month Softbank had said it incurred Rs 9000 crore losses from investments in India. Mainly, attributing the losses to large investments in Snapdeal and Ola. Softbank until now had invested a total of $2 billion in Indian startups, including Ola, Snapdeal, Grofers and OYO Rooms. The fresh investment is the largest round by Softbank in any Indian startup. Paytm’s earlier funding In September 2015, Paytm had raised $680 million from Alibaba Group and Ant Financial services. At that time Alibaba had picked up…
