EBay stated at present it’s shopping for a 5.5% stake in e-commerce market Paytm Mall as the worldwide agency makes one other push to achieve footprint in India’s fast-growing e-commerce market.
The two companies didn’t disclose monetary phrases of the deal, however a supply aware of the matter advised TechCrunch that EBay has invested between $150 million to $200 million in Paytm Mall at a valuation of $three billion, up from underneath $2 billion final 12 months. Paytm Mall had raised about $650 million previous to at present’s announcement, the supply stated.
The settlement will see greater than one million merchandise of EBay be made out there for buy to customers on Paytm Mall, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm stated in a press release. “We will jointly select the inventory we want to bring here. It will be done in a month’s time,” he added. EBay will proceed to function its e-commerce website in India, the corporate stated.
The deal might strengthen Paytm Mall’s place in India, the place it competes with Walmart -owned Flipkart, and Amazon India. Online retail gross sales in India are anticipated to develop to about $72 billion in three years, in response to analysis agency eMarketer.
Paytm Mall, which is backed by SoftBank, Alibaba, Ant Financial, and SAIF Partners, reported GMV gross sales of $188 million in 2018. In final one 12 months, gross sales on the e-commerce arm of One97 Communications, which additionally runs Paytm pockets, has misplaced momentum after it reduce down the lofty provides it was bandying out to prospects, in response to an Economic Times report.
Like Amazon and Flipkart, Paytm Mall operates on an inventory-led mannequin in India, however in current months it has shifted its focus to offline-to-online and online-to-offline fashions, whereby orders positioned by prospects are serviced from native model shops. A second supply advised TechCrunch that Paytm Mall intends to aggressively develop its non-inventory primarily based fashions. Paytm Mall claims to have over 100,000 vendor companions on its platform.
This is EBay’s third funding in India. The firm made its first funding within the nation in Snapdeal in 2013, after which on Flipkart. After the Indian agency was acquired by Walmart for $16 billion, EBay offered its stake for $1.1 billion and relaunched its e-commerce website with cross-border commerce as its new focus.
“We are deeply committed to India and believe there is huge growth potential and significant opportunity in this dynamic market,” stated Jooman Park, Senior Vice President of EBay’s APAC enterprise. “This new relationship will accelerate our cross-border trade efforts in a rapidly growing market, providing hundreds of millions of Paytm and Paytm Mall customers with access to EBay’s unparalleled selection of goods.”
