US-based e-tailer eBay has invested an undisclosed amount in Paytm Mall, picking up 5.5 per cent stake in the Indian e-commerce platform.
This is eBay's third investment in the Indian e-commerce market, after Snapdeal and Flipkart.
During an investor call, eBay President and Chief Executive Officer Devin Wenig said the company has reached a commercial agreement with Paytm Mall to bring its global inventory onto one of the largest marketplaces in India.
"eBay will open a store on Paytm Mall, which will provide hundreds of millions of Paytm and Paytm Mall's customers with access to our global inventory. As part of this collaboration, eBay is making an investment in Paytm Mall for a stake of approximately 5.5 per cent," he added.
eBay had invested in Snapdeal in 2014. However, it recorded a USD 61 million impairment charge to write down its investment in Snapdeal in 2017.
In the same year, in exchange for an equity stake in e-commerce major Flipkart, eBay made a USD 500 million cash investment and sold its India business to Flipkart.
Interestingly, in 2018, eBay sold its holdings in Flipkart representing gross proceeds of about USD 1.1 billion when Walmart invested USD 16 billion into the Bengaluru-based company. At that time, it had also stated that the company plans to re-launch eBay India with a differentiated offer to focus initially on the cross-border trade opportunity.
Paytm Mall, on the other hand, has struggled to compete against giants like Walmart-backed Flipkart and US-based Amazon.
Last year, Paytm Mall had raised close to Rs 2,900 crore from SoftBank Investment Holdings and Alibaba.com Singapore E-commerce in a deal that valued the online shopping venture of Paytm at USD 2 billion.
Paytm Mall, which had reported a net loss of Rs 1,787 crore on total sales of Rs 774.8 crore in the year ended March 2018, is now working on expanding its 'Paytm Mall World Store' that makes international brands available to Indian buyers at its platform.
The assortment includes over two million stock keeping units from several countries including the US, Spain, Korea, Japan and China.
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