Ebay likely to invest $160-$170 million in Paytm Mall

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Apr 22, 2019

U.S.-based online marketplace Ebay is looking to make a comeback in India’s e-commerce sector and is likely to make a strategic investment of around $160-$170 million (approx Rs 1,113 crore to Rs 1,183 crore) in Paytm Mall.
 

Patym Mall, owned by Paytm E-Commerce, is currently the third biggest player in India's rapidly-growing online retail space. However, due to shortage of funds, the e-commerce venture has failed to catch up with e-commerce majors like Amazon and Flipkart.
 
With the strategic investment, Paytm will hope to close the gap on e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart as it eyes $2 billion in gross merchandise sales this year. The company has already started scaling up its business and has been on a hiring spree to achieve its set target.

Ebay has already initiated talks with the Paytm Mall, which has the backing of China's Alibaba Group and the deal is likely to be closed in the coming months, Economic Times reported citing anonymous sources.
 
“Ebay has begun talks to lead a $160-$170 million strategic investment in Paytm Mall, as it looks to explore an offline-to-online commerce and payments strategy in India, EBay will continue to run its independent online portal in India,” sources told ET.
 
“Ebay has been looking to invest in e-commerce ever since it sold its stake in Flipkart. The company believes India is a significant and growing market,” the source added.
 
In 2017, Ebay had exchanged its India Company and invested $500 million for an equity stake in Flipkart, thereby making Ebay.in a Flipkart group company. It exited Flipkart last year after Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart. Ebay also owns a minority stake in e-commerce firm Snapdeal.