By Ritvik Vanukuru
Alibaba and Ant Financials, led by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, have sold their stake in Paytm E-commerce Pvt Ltd. The company held a stake of 43.32 %, and this was sold for roughly Rs 42 crore ($5.6 million). Originally Alibaba held a stake of 28.35%, and Ant Financials held a stake of 14.98% in Paytm mall (Parent company).
Back in 2017, Jack Ma was the primary investor in the e-commerce firm led by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, putting in $200 million at a $1 billion valuation for its first fundraiser, initially modeled on Alibaba's T-mall, which faced stern resistance from Flipkart and Amazon in India.
The reasons given for the exit of the investors were the rising online business arena in India, bearish market conditions, and the ripple effects of the pandemic.