Paytm is globetrotting, enters Canada with an app for bill payments

Company plans to assess the market and keep on adding services that are more in vogue

Becoming one of the few Indian start-ups to make a global entry, online mobile wallet major Paytm said on Thursday that it had launched a bill payments service in Canada. 

It said users there would be able to pay for their cell phone, cable, internet, electricity and water bills via a Paytm Canada app. Other features would be added in course of time. Users will also be able to pay for their insurance and property taxes by using the app. It is available on both Android and iOS in Canada, the company said.

“We are confident that Canada will be a very successful market for us,” said Harinder Takhar, chief executive at Paytm Labs. The company had set up a base in Canada in 2014, which it uses for research and development work. Paytm has expanded its operations significantly in Canada over these two years, from a two-person operation to a team of data scientists and engineers building technologies for a fast growing mobile payments and commerce eco-system.

Since 2014, the company has used big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning on Paytm’s data assets to build products for about two hundred million consumers. Back in May 2016, Paytm said it planned to go global through its association with Alipay, owned by China’s Alibaba Group. Beginning with 16 countries, Paytm’s international reach will grow every time the Chinese mobile payment major expands its international footprint.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and head of the One97-owned Paytm, had said his company was working with Alipay to make Paytm a global wallet. “What is happening behind the scene is that Paytm and Alipay are building a global network. While Alipay is working on global acceptance, Paytm is acquiring local consumers,” he said.