Paytm acquires deals platforms Nearbuy and Little, to merge both

NEWDELHI: Paytm on Wednesday announced the acquisition of Nearbuy and Little, deals platforms focusing on local restaurants and commercial establishments. Paytm said it arranged a merger of the well-funded startups and made a “strategic” investment in the resultant entity for a majority stake.

Sequoia Capital India, a large investor in Nearbuy (formerly Group on India ), continues to be a shareholder in th emerged entity. Paytm did not say whether Sequoia sold a part of its investment in Nearbuy to Paytm.

Mint wasthe firstto reportthe potential deal in September.

Nearbuy, which was founded as So S as ta, was acquired by NASDAQ- listed Group on Inc. in 2011. It was renamed Group on India in 2013. In 2015, Sequoia Capital India and the current CEO An k ur Warikoo bought majority stake from the US-based parent and named it Nearbuy.

Little app (Little Internet Pvt Ltd), on the other hand, was launched in 2015 with initial backing from Paytm, which wanted to test the waters in the hyper-local deals business. It started only with a $50 million investment from Paytm, SAIF Partners and Tiger Global Management (SAIF is also a large minority shareholder in Pay tm ).

Paytm did not comment on whether it bought over SA IF and Tiger’s stake in Little app.

Pay tm is set to benefit from the large number of merchant partnerships with both Near buy and Little and an even larger pool of potential customers.