Reuters reported news on Monday April 2 that a regulatory filing has revealed 445 million being invested into India mobile wallet company Paytm by SoftBank and Alibaba The publication said SoftBank plans to invest 400 million in the company while Alibaba will provide 45 million Combined the funding will value Paytm at about 19 billion SoftBank is particularly interested in Paytm Mall the brand name of Paytms online marketplace We believe Paytm Malls offline-to-online operating model combined with the strength of the Paytm ecosystem is uniquely positioned to enable Indias 15 million offline retail shops to participate in Indias eCommerce boom said SoftBank in a statement The investment was announced the same day separate reports said Paytm is looking to diversify its offerings and focus on bank-to-bank transfers as the company expects enhanced Know Your Customer KYC rules will put pressure on transaction volume According to The Times of India the Reserve Bank of India imposed KYC rules on peer-to-peer and merchant payments that came into effect last month Before these rules eWallet customers only needed a mobile number and a payment account to use a solution to send and receive cash add funds and use other services Enhanced KYC requirements mean customers will have to complete a more detailed authentication process In response Paytm said it will be focusing on bank-to-bank transfers using an intermediary service like Payment Service or IMPS according to the publication In addition the company is said to be exploring an entrance into supplier payments wholesale payments and gig worker and freelance payments We have been working on becoming a full-stack payments player said Paytm COO Kiran Vasireddy according to the publication The focus on money transfer clearly shows we want people to make transactions on our platform using whichever solution they like Our offline payments have also scaled through the Paytm QR code feature enabling merchants to accept payments directly into their bank accounts You Might Also Like alibaba B2B B2B Payments freelancer payments gig economy india KYC Mobile Payments mobile wallet News Paytm softbank supplier payments Whats Hot In B2B