Paytm, India’s leading digital payments platform, has refuted the rumours of selling its wallet business to Jio Financial Services, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. The company issued a statement on Tuesday, calling the reports “baseless and untrue”.
“We would like to clarify that there is no truth to these rumours. We have not held any discussions with any entity, including Jio Financial Services, to sell our wallet business. Paytm is a profitable and growing company, and we are committed to serving our customers and merchants with our innovative products and services,” the statement read.
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The clarification came after some media outlets reported that Paytm was in talks to sell its wallet business to Jio for around $1 billion, citing unnamed sources. The reports claimed that the deal was part of Paytm’s strategy to focus on its e-commerce and financial services segments, and to reduce its regulatory and operational costs.
However, Paytm dismissed these claims, saying that its wallet business was an integral part of its overall ecosystem, and that it had no plans to divest it. The company also said that it had a strong relationship with Jio, and that they were working together to offer seamless payment solutions to their users.
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Paytm and Jio share
“Paytm and Jio share a common vision of empowering millions of Indians with digital services. We have a strategic partnership with Jio, where we enable our users to recharge their Jio numbers, pay their bills, and access other Jio services through our app. We also offer Jio users the option to pay using Paytm wallet at various offline and online merchants. We will continue to collaborate with Jio to bring more value to our customers and merchants,” the statement added.
Paytm, which is backed by investors such as Alibaba, SoftBank, and Berkshire Hathaway, claims to have over 450 million registered users and 20 million merchants on its platform. The company offers a range of services, including mobile recharges, bill payments, money transfers, ticket bookings, online shopping, insurance, lending, and wealth management.
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Jio, on the other hand, is India’s largest telecom operator, with over 400 million subscribers. The company also operates a suite of digital services, such as JioTV, JioCinema, JioSaavn, JioMart, JioMoney, and JioHealth. Jio has recently raised over $20 billion from global investors, including Facebook, Google, Silver Lake, and KKR.
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