India's Paytm E-Commerce Raises $200 Million From Alibaba, SAIF Partners

MUMBAI, India — India's Paytm E-Commerce Pvt Ltd has raised $200 million from China's Alibaba Group Holding and venture capital fund SAIF Partners to expand its online retail business in a market dominated by homegrown Flipkart and US tech giant Amazon.

Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Pvt Ltd picked up a 36.31 percent stake in Paytm E-Commerce for investing $177 million, according to a regulatory filing by the Indian company that runs an online marketplace.

Alibaba and its associates are also the largest shareholders in One97 Communications, which has a stake in Paytm E-Commerce.

SAIF Partners' $23 million investment will give it a 4.66 percent stake in Paytm E-Commerce, the filing showed.

Alibaba Group is looking to invest outside China as growth slows at home.

In its biggest overseas deal, Alibaba in April agreed to buy a controlling stake in Southeast Asian online retailer Lazada Group for about $1 billion.

Paytm Payments Bank Ltd, another company of the group, houses its electronic payment wallets and planned payments bank business.

Paytm has said its e-wallet service has more than 200 million clients in India.

By Sankalp Phartiyal; editor: Richard Borsuk.