Microsoft plans to invest in Paytm: Report

Microsoft is expected to invest $100 million (₹760 crore approximately) in Paytm.

The discussions with Microsoft, as per the report, began last year when Paytm was in the middle of raising funds. (Reuters)

Microsoft is planning to pump cash in India's fintech firm, Paytm.

According to a report by the ET Tech, Microsoft has had several talks with Paytm as the Noida-headquartered company is looking at raising funds in order to go toe-to-toe with others like Google Pay, PhonePe and Amazon Pay in the sector.

The Redmond-based company is expected to invest $100 million (₹760 crore approximately) in Paytm, which is in extension to $1 billion that payments company had announced to raise last year.

The discussions with Microsoft, as per the report, began last year when Paytm was in the middle of raising funds. The company couldn't participate in the process last year and hence it is planning on pumping in cash in the India's payments company now.

Both Microsoft and Paytm have said that they don't have a comment on the matter yet.

As far as Microsoft is concerned, the company so far as focused on expanding the presence of its cloud, Microsoft Azure, in India. Back in 2017, the company announced a deal with Walmart-owned Flipkart that entailed the e-retail platform using Azure as an exclusive public platform. Last year, the company announced an exclusive partnership with Reliance Jio which entailed Azure being used for solutions being developed for small and medium businesses in India. In addition to that, the partnership also entailed Azure powering data centres set up by Jio in India.

Now, if the new report is indeed correct, it would be Microsoft's first major investment in India outside its cloud infrastructure.