Paytm Looks To Diversify And Raise Funds For New Retail Model

Continuing its 360-degree holistic services, digital payments company Paytm will be raising funds to build a new retail model to equip shopkeepers with technology, logistics, and marketing capabilities.

Under the new retail model, the consumers will be able to discover nearby pharmacies, groceries, and other shops to place an order and get instant deliveries.

What Is New Retail Model?

Paytm will also be building P2P logistics with a rider network spread across the country which will be utilised for intra-city deliveries.

The company has given the new retail baton to Renu Satti, of Paytm Payments Bank, as COO of the new model. She has an experience of building business group up that includes marketplace, movie ticketing, and Payments Bank.

Further, the company has already partnered with a large network of local shops, restaurants, pharmacies, and groceries for accepting payments and will soon be extending the retail services to them.

After growing the food and groceries business, the company has now planned to partner with national grocery, food chains and online platforms to power new retail.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder, and CEO, Paytm, said, “We will work with local restaurants, grocery stores, and pharmacies to enable them for local ordering and delivery. Renu will lead the new retail initiative and she has resigned from the bank’s CEO position. Local ordering is expected to become one-third of Paytm orders and GMV by 2020.”

Paytm: Expanding Territories, Services

Paytm has recently partnered with PayPay, SoftBank, and Yahoo Japan’s newly launched digital payments company. PayPay will be leveraging Paytm’s technology and expertise in mobile payments. The services will be launched in the fall of 2018.

Paytm has also ventured into forex services for top 20 international countries. It will start with foreign exchange services and may also enter cross-border remittance services.

Earlier, Paytm had announced that it had achieved an annual run rate of 5 Bn transactions and $50 Bn in gross transaction value (GTV).

Paytm has already invested in the business of entertainment, hotel bookings, lending, life insurance, and Paytm Mall to diversify its product portfolio.

As it plans to leverage new retail model for strengthen its portfolio, the company is set to challenge hyperlocal startups like BigBasket, Grofers, Godrej Nature’s Basket, and DailyNinja along with pharmacy startups like Medlife, 1mg, and Netmeds.

The development comes at a time when Bengaluru-based ecommerce company Flipkart had earmarked several hundreds of millions of dollars of its investor money to bolster its online grocery arm.

Flipkart’s three-year outlook reportedly claimed that the company expects groceries to contribute $1 Bn to its target GMV of $17.6 Bn by 2020-21.

Amazon had also recently invested $1.5 Mn in its food retail arm, Amazon Retail India and has plans to expand in the online grocery sector.

Amazon is also ready to dive into the healthtech market and is eyeing on acquiring online pharmacy MedPlus.On the international front, it has also acquired PillPack – an online pharmacy.

With the increasingly holistic portfolio services, Paytm’s plans for new retail are bound to increase the competition in the Indian startup ecosystem.