Alibaba and SAIF executives join Paytm E-commerce board

Paytm E-commerce, the online marketplace division of payments platform, Paytm has inducted SAIF Partner’s Ravi Adusumalli and four top executives from Alibaba as its board of directors, reports ET.

According to filings made with Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), the new members of the board from Alibaba Group include the e-commerce giant’s senior director of finance Jason Pak Tung Yip; secretary and general counsel at Alibaba Group Holding, Timothy A Steinert; former director of Alibaba.com Europe and present executive director at Alibaba Entrepreneurs Hong Kong, Mei Ki Cindy Chow Lok; and chief executive of Alibaba’s payments subsidiary Ant Financials, Jing Xiandong.

The newly-elected five members will join Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and vice president Amit Sinha on the board, the report added.

Last year, Paytm’s parent company- One97 Communications Ltd differentiated its e-commerce and payments businesses as Paytm E-Commerce and Paytm Payments Bank Ltd, respectively. Marking its formal entry into India’s e-commerce segment, Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba and its payment subsidiary Ant Financials invested $200 million in Paytm E-commerce in March this year.

Now, as per latest reports, Paytm is looking to raise a massive $1.9 billion funding from Japan-based SoftBank Group, for a 20 percent stake in the company. The deal would value the company at around $9 billion.