Flush with funds from Japan
Softbank, digital wallet and e-commerce company Paytm is eyeing another acquisition.
The payments firm has held preliminary talks to acquire online travel company
via.com. Paytm, which is run by One97 Communications Ltd, is looking to invest
close to $80 million to acquire the Bengaluru-based travel portal.
In March this year, the
Alibaba-backed Paytm tied up with US-based online travel portal Priceline
Group’s Booking.com, to expand its travel business. The company
then said it will invest Rs 300 crore to further grow this business and that it
is also looking to ramp up its Bengaluru-based travel marketplace team to over
250 people in the next two quarters. Paytm’s travel marketplace enables
users to book hotels, flights, trains and bus tickets on a fast, secure and
convenient platform. In January 2017, the Noida-headquartered company claimed
to have crossed $500 million in annualized gross merchandise value.
Via.com, owned and operated by
Flightraja Travels Pvt Ltd, was founded in 2007 as an offline
business-to-business travel site. It currently functions as a travel deals
aggregator and ticket booking site. Its inventory includes ticketing in
flights, hotels, holiday packages as well as car and bus services. The firm had
raised $5 million from Indo US Venture Partners (now Kalaari Capital) in 2007
and followed it up with a $10 million round from Sequoia Capital in December
2009.
Following its $200 million funding
from Alibaba and SAIF Partners into to its e-commerce arm in March this year
and $1.4 billion from SoftBank in May this year, Paytm has been on a
multi-pronged expansion drive. It has made a number of investments and
acquisitions and effected key appointments, internal movements, and new
business strategies. Earlier this month, the company was in talks to acquire deal
discovery app Little and online deals startup Nearbuy to strengthen its
hyperlocal play.
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