Paytm has acquired online hyper-local services marketplace Near.in for a cash-and-stock deal estimated between $1.5 million to $2 million. This is the first acquisition made by Paytm since the $680 million funding it secured from Alibaba Group and Ant Financial.
Gurgaon-based Near.in was founded by Lomesh Dutta, Sunil Goyal and Akshay Khanna. The company is based on the Online-to-Offline (O2O) space and helps consumers discover service providers like plumbers, make-up and tattoo artists, etc in a specified locality. It covers several categories including health, home needs and wellness.
“We see enormous potential for O2O in India, which is a perfect blend of online and offline commerce. With this core belief, we have acquired Near.in and we will continue to invest more in this space. Near has a significant network of local service providers in place and a stellar team leading it. We are confident that their platform and team will add further strength to our other O2O initiatives, which is a key focus area for us,” said Kiran Vasireddy, senior vice-president and head of investments for Paytm.
Paytm had earlier invested $10 million in Jugnoo, an autorickshaw aggregator that was founded in November 2014 by a group of IITians.
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