Paytm set to buy deal platforms Nearbuy and Little in ‘distressed sale’

Paytm, the e-wallet company promoted by Vijay Shekar Sharma is on the prowl. It has just concluded buying up 2 small startups, Little and Nearbuy in what is being described as ‘distress sale’. The deal covering both these startups is reported to be worth $30 million and it would be a combination of both cash and stocks.

Nearbuy is into providing online discount coupons and used to be known earlier as Groupon India and broke away in 2015. The company has its headquarters in Gurgaon and Sequoia Capital had funded it to the tune of $20 million at that juncture. The company ties up with restaurants, movie theaters, spas and hotels to offer discounts to the public through the channels Nearbuy ties up with. The idea is to reach these coupons either directly through mails addressed to prospective customers and by associating with other stakeholders like credit and debit cards issuing institutions to make their products more attractive for their card holders.

Little Internet is a Bangalore-based company that has an app called Little and its business runs almost similar to the one managed by Nearbuy. Little had managed to receive much more in the form of funding and its backers are also the redoubtable Saif Partners and Singapore’s GIC. The funding received by Little was to the extent of $50 million. In the light of these, the $30 million being paid by Paytm for both these startups together does appear low and the ‘distress sale’ may be the right tag after all. After this deal, Paytm and GIC would be the major stakeholders in Little Internet.

These acquisitions gel well with the plans that Paytm has, for its ‘online-to-offline’ (O2O) vertical.

Paytm is backed by big-ticket investors such as Alibaba and SoftBank and is currently valued at $7billion. None of the companies have officially commented on the development.