Ratan Tata joins Paytm as advisor, picks up minority stake

Paytm, in which China's Alibaba has also invested, plans to build about 100 mn wallets by this year

In a major show of trust, Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, the holding company of the $100-bn software-to-steel giant Tata group, has joined Paytm as an advisor. He has also made a “minor” investment in the Noida-based company. 
 

Prior to this, Ratan Tata joined Kalaari as advisor signaling his keen interest in e-commerce in India. 

Earlier, Business Standard  had reported that Ratan Tata was considering new investment in Indian e commerce companies, including new and his existing ventures. So far Tata has already invested in e-commerce ventures as Snapdeal, Bluestone, Urban ladder and Car Dekho. 

Paytm, in which China's Alibaba has also invested, plans to  build about 100 million wallets by this year.  At present it has   25 million active wallets. 

The average wallet balance for the Paytm  wallet is Rs 150 and the company does around 1 million transactions a day across the Paytm app and other merchants (like Uber , BookMyShow etc).

Paytm currently has $1 billion in gross merchandising volume (GMV) from its mobile app. This year the target is to grow to $4 billion GMV. Starting from mobile payments, Paytm wallet allows consumers to buy mobile recharges, tickets, deals and shop across 18,000 merchants.

"I am very happy that Mr Tata has put faith and trust in our values and mission. There is no better advisor for Paytm on building India's most trusted mobile payment and commerce platform" said Vijay Sekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm. 

Paytm is  available across many popular mobile apps (like Uber, Bookmyshow, MakeMyTrip and FoodPanda) as preferred their payment method.