Paytm, the Indian digital payments giant, could buy a 7 percent stake in PayPay, a subsidiary of SoftBank

On May 14, Inc42 reported that Paytm, the Indian digital payments giant, could buy a 7 percent stake in PayPay Japan, a subsidiary of SoftBank.

PayPay Japan was founded in 2018 and is operated by a joint venture between SoftBank of Japan and Yahoo Japan, which holds more than 90% of PayPay Japan, according to the data.




PayPay mobile payment apps are expanding in Japan, from large chains to small and medium-sized businesses, vending machines, taxis and public transport. PayPay’s mobile payment platform now has around 40 million users and makes 2 billion transactions annually.

Japan’s SoftBank Corp, parent of the PayPay mobile payment app, aims to double the number of users of its PayPay QR code payment app in the next three to four years to cement its lead in cashless payments, according to public reports.



It is worth noting that paytm’s parent company One97 Communications was founded in 2000 and SoftBank of Japan holds about 20% of One97 Communications.

In this way, the two companies formed a cross-shareholding.

Founded in 2010, Paytm has become one of India’s leading digital payment companies for over a decade. Paytm, which claims to have more than 150 million monthly active users in its financial services, reportedly completed 1.2 billion transactions in February 2021.

In August 2020, Microsoft pumped 100 million U.S. dollars into Paytm. The Microsoft investment is an extension of Paytm’s USD 1 billion fundraising program, which was launched in 2019.