Paytm Mall moves into Flipkart space

One of the most famous addresses in Bengaluru just welcomed a new tenant.

Call it coincidence or a calculated move by two companies backed by SoftBank. Flipkart’s 50,000 sq ft space, base of operation for the ecommerce giant over more than a decade was taken over by Paytm Mall, to set up another base of operation for the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led marketplace.

This was one of the first headquarters that Flipkart, the Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal-led company, moved into after managing to close a few major funding rounds. Thanks to Flipkart, the popularity of Koramangala in the commercial space market soared. It soon became one of the most sought locations to set shop for start-ups and venture capital funds.

Flipkart has already moved almost all its offices in Bengaluru to a new two million sq ft custom-built campus, at Cessna Business Park on Sarjapur Road.

According to sources, it had paid ~3.5-4 million a month for the old space and Paytm Mall has bagged the lease for ~6 million a month. Flipkart and One97 Communications, holding company of Paytm Mall, are both backed by Japanese telecom major SoftBank Group.

However, the two companies have no plan to join forces anytime soon.

With its new office, Paytm Mall plans to attract infotech talent based in Bengaluru and add to the impetus for its product development, customer service and other operations. The new office is spread across the two floors in the Vaishnavi Summit area and will seat at least 700 professionals.

It is expected to be fully operational by this monthend, extending the capacity from its existing offices in HSR Layout and Bannerghatta.

“Our new premises will complement our aggressive hiring plan for 2018 and help us attract talent across tech, product, business and design. This young and dynamic talent will play a critical role in our mission to build India’s largest and most trusted mobile commerce platform,” said Amit Sinha, operations head at Paytm Mall.

The aim is to take on its two biggest rivals, Amazon India and Flipkart, on their turf. Both have leased huge office spaces in some of the most costly and sought addresses in Bengaluru.

With a little over 65 million products, Paytm Mall says it caters to customers across 19,000 pincodes. Its investors include Alibaba Group Holdings, Ant Financial and SAIF Partners.