Indian digital payments company Paytm is reportedly in talks with Microsoft for raising new funds. The report comes from ET, which cites two people with knowledge of the proposed fund raise.
According to the report, the companies have been in talks since last year for Paytm to raise around $100 million from Microsoft as a part of its planned $1 billion fundraising round that Paytm initiated last year. A person familiar with the discussions between the companies has been quoted by ET as saying “The talks with Microsoft began last year when Paytm was in the middle of raising funds. While Microsoft could not participate in the funding then, it is likely to pump in cash now.”
Paytm’s last fund raising round started last year, when the company announced that it has raised $1 billion from US-based asset manager T.Rowe Price, along with SoftBank and Alibaba-owned Ant Financial. According to regulatory filings made by Paytm, it has received $720 million of those funds up until now. It’s noteworthy that Ant Financial will now have to get the government’s approval for the proposed investment due to new FDI guidelines issued by India.
When asked about the deal, a Paytm spokesperson told ET that the company does not comment on speculations, while a Microsoft spokesperson has been quoted by the ET as saying “At this moment, we do not have any comments on your proposed story.”
