Paytm Mall, the e-commerce arm of Paytm, has raised around ₹2,900 crore from SoftBank Investment Holdings and Alibaba.com Singapore, as per an RoC filing. With this the company is now valued at $2 billion.

The fresh funding comes after Japanese Internet giant SoftBank pumped in a whopping $1.8 billion in One97, founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, which is the parent of Paytm, for about a 30 per cent stake last year. Paytm Mall is also SoftBank’s third investment in any e-commerce venture in India after Snapdeal and Flipkart. Paytm Mall was created as a separate company in August 2016.

The funds will be used to expand the online to offline (O2O) model, empowering shopkeepers with technology, building superior logistics, strengthening the Paytm Mall brand and bringing an enriching experience to the customers, said Amit Sinha, COO, Paytm Mall.

“This latest investment reaffirms the strength of our business model, growth trajectory, execution capability and the potential of India’s massive O2O model in the retail space. We are committed to increasing the business growth for the offline merchants,” he added.

Paytm Mall, which is similar to Alibaba’s Tmall in China, is all set to give a tough competition to big rivals Flipkart and Amazon.

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