Paytm provides technological support to Japan's payment app PayPay

SoftBank is aiming to take PayPay public; Paytm may also get some stake in the app

Indian digital payments firm Paytm is providing technological support to Japan’s payment app PayPay, which multinational conglomerate SoftBank is aiming to take public. Noida-based Paytm may also get some stake in PayPay.

PayPay is a QR (quick response) code-based payment app. It is a joint venture between SoftBank and Yahoo Japan, with Paytm as a technology partner. It was founded in June 2018. PayPay has nearly 40 million users and has witnessed 2 billion annual transactions. 

“We want PayPay to IPO in the future so that they would become independent,” said Junichi Miyakawa, who became chief executive of SoftBank Corp last month, at an earnings briefing. “So rather than having the dependent business model that they have now, we want them to be independent. And I don’t think that would be too far out in the future.”

SoftBank said PayPay has been growing by 2.5 times year-on-year, and the firm is expected to continue to maintain that momentum. The number of merchants has increased to 3.60 million. SoftBank revealed that PayPay’s GMV (gross merchandise volume), a measure of transaction volume, reached 3.2 trillion yen in the year ended March.

Z Holdings, the parent of Yahoo Japan, will be collaborating with PayPay and expand different businesses.PayPay is expected to become a super app and a gateway to the fintech ecosystem.

“PayPay Card, PayPay Bank. I mean there’s a lot of collaborations that have begun,” said Miyakawa. “So we will continue to build on this.”

Investment giant Softbank Group on Wednesday reported an annual net profit of $45.8 billion. This is the best ever result for a Japanese company. It is getting the rewards of tech share rallies to recover from last year's record loss.

SoftBank has backed top companies in areas ranging from artificial intelligence to biotechnology through its $100 billion Vision Fund. During the fiscal year, the global economic situation was greatly affected by the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) and the pandemic that followed, which continues to this day. Governments around the world are implementing fiscal stimulus and monetary easing measures to counter the economic impacts of the pandemic. Expectations that vaccination programs progress in some countries will encourage greater economic activity have led to a sharp overall market recovery in the second half of the fiscal year, with new capital continuing to flow in.

“In particular, the technology sector, where the Company focuses its investment strategies, has been positively impacted by the accelerated adoption of digital services to address the pandemic,” said SoftBank.