What are the key takeaways from the recent round of Paytm funding?

Paytm, one of India’s largest digital payment platform and part owned by Warren Buffett, has raised $1 billion from investors, including Japan’s Softbank Group and China’s Ant Financial. Both Softbank and Ant Financial have been invested in Paytm for quite some time now and have been early stage investors in the company. Paytm will use the funds to give a boost to its finances in order to make a deeper foray into India’s hinterland. In the last few months, Paytm is facing tough competition from Google Pay, which has the muscle power of Google and PhonePe, which has the pockets of Wal-Mart backing it. This gives Paytm the much needed war chest.

The fundraising has lifted Paytm’s valuation to $16 billion, making it one of the valuable ecommerce companies in India. Among the new investors in Paytm, they included T. Rowe Price, Discovery Capital among others. The investments will be used for growing the payments and financial services business. In fact, Paytm plans to invest Rs.10,000 crore over the next three years to bring financial inclusion to more under-served users across India.