Paytm to expand to Saudi Arabia, UAE and Singapore; appoints former bureaucrat Bimal Julka to board

One 97 Communications, which runs digital payments platform Paytm, is expanding operations to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

The company plans to invest up to Rs 20 crore in each of these markets for deploying its merchant payments and financial services products, according to a regulatory filing on Monday. It will consider organic expansions and strategic partnerships and investments along with local licences in these countries.

Paytm is among several Indian fintech startups who are looking to expand their businesses to the Middle East and Southeast Asia. While the likes of M2P Fintech are powering banking services in these countries, CCAvenue and Pine Labs have already started payment businesses.

In a bid to boost its lending operations, Paytm said it has enhanced default loss guarantees offered to its non-banking finance partner SMFG India Credit Company, formerly known as Fullerton India. Guarantees offered by Paytm have been increased to Rs 350 crore from Rs 225 crore previously.

The Reserve Bank of India allows fintechs to offer default guarantees up to 5% of the loans disbursed through its partners.

In another filing, Paytm said it has appointed former bureaucrat Bimal Julka as a non-executive independent director to its board. Julka retired as secretary to the information and broadcasting ministry.

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Ravi Chandra Adusumalli is the other non-executive independent director on the board. Adusumalli is the representative of Elevation Capital, one of Paytm’s early investors.

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