Paytm to invest 600cr to expand its QR code payments

Paytm has announced that it will invest over Rs. 600Cr to enable merchants across India for acceptance of digital payments using its QR code based payment solution. The company is investing in scaling up manpower, technology, and merchant education so they can transact digitally for the first time and become a part of the formal economy.

Paytm's QR code based payment solution claims that it is already powering more than 5 million merchants and is heavily used by consumers to pay in their everyday lives at kirana stores, tolls, food courts, hospitals and large retail outlets among others.

The company is acquiring almost a million merchants a month and aiming for over 10 million merchants in 650 districts of the country. Within a year of launch of its QR Code based offline payments, it already contributes around 65 percent of overall transactions on its platform.

Kiran Vasireddy, Sr. Vice President, Paytm said, "We are on a mission to democratize digital payments. Our zero percent merchant transaction fee coupled with an aggressive merchant acquisition rate, will help us take QR Code based payments to every nook and corner of this country. We will invest 600 Cr this calendar year, which will be used for scaling up merchant acquisition teams, marketing and cash-backs. We will have over ten million merchants on our platform before Dec’17, which also puts us on the right path to build one of the largest payment networks in the world."

Paytm has also launched a 24*7 Merchant Helpline to assist merchants across India accepting payments using its cashless payment solution.