New Delhi: Paytm Money Ltd launched its own app for mutual fund investments on Tuesday with a target to sell mutual fund to around 25 million people in the next three to five years. In order to offer direct plans of mutual funds, Paytm has partnered with 25 asset management companies.
The Indian digital wallet company is offering systematic investment plans (SIPs). It plans on providing SIPs for as low as Rs 100 in some of its schemes as it targets individual investors sitting in Tier 2-3 cities.
“About 50 million investors will be invested in mutual funds by the next three to five years. In that 50 million, we want to have a majority share, so around 20-25 million people,” Pravin Jadhav, whole-time director of Paytm Money told Moneycontrol.
Paytm, the wholly-owned subsidiary of One97 Communications Ltd, claims that as many as 850,000 users have already registered on its newly launched platform.
Out of these registered users, 65 percent of the people are from beyond the top 15 cities of the country, said Jadhav.
Recently, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc has acquired a Rs 2,500 crore stake in Paytm, its first investment in the country’s burgeoning startup ecosystem.
In a statement, One97 Communications Ltd, which owns the Paytm brand, said US-based Berkshire Hathaway would have a member on the company board in lieu of the investment but did not disclose the size of the deal or the stake sold.
However, people with direct knowledge of the development said Berkshire could have bought 3-4 per cent stake for about $300-350 million (about Rs 2,500 crore), valuing the Indian firm at over $10 billion.
Berkshire, which has traditionally invested in companies in sectors like consumer, energy and insurance, joins Japanese giant SoftBank that had last year bought a reported 20 per cent stake in Paytm for an estimated $1.4 billion (over Rs 9,000 crore).
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