A decade after Jack Ma’s bet, Paytm’s China ties end

Chinese financial services giant AntFin is selling its remaining 5.8% stake in One 97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, for Rs 3,800 crore. This move comes after another key investor, Japan’s SoftBank, exited its entire holding in 2024.

The exits mark the end of a high-profile Japanese-Chinese investor chapter in Paytm’s journey, from becoming India’s most valued startup at $15 billion, to a lacklustre IPO in 2021, and a volatile public market performance thereafter.

Gradual exits


Since Paytm’s public listing, AntFin has been steadily paring its stake through multiple tranches:

• In November 2021, it conducted an offer for sale (OFS), offloading shares worth Rs 4,704 crore.
• In September 2023, it transferred a 10% stake to Resilient Asset Management, a Netherlands-based firm owned by Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma. This reduced AntFin’s holding to 13%.
• It sold more shares in late 2023, bringing its stake below 9%.
• In May 2025, Ant sold an additional 4%, and is now looking to divest the final 5.8%.

Full circle

The Ant-Paytm story has come full circle in just under a decade. Back in September 2015, Ant group, Alibaba’s fintech affiliate, made a bold bet on India’s digital payments space, investing over $500 million in the then mobile wallet startup.

This valued Paytm at $3.4 billion, with Ant taking a 40% stake. Vijay Shekhar Sharma positioned this partnership as India’s answer to Alibaba’s China play. That narrative was reinforced when SoftBank, also an early Alibaba investor, pumped $1.4 billion into Paytm in 2017, taking its valuation to $7 billion.

What went wrong?

While Paytm’s reliance on Alibaba’s capital was once considered a strength, the geopolitical climate shifted sharply in 2020. As India toughened its stance on Chinese investments in local tech firms, Paytm came under scrutiny.

As early as 2018, questions were raised in Parliament regarding Chinese ownership in Paytm and its application for an NBFC licence.

While Paytm denied sharing any user data with foreign entities, the association with Chinese investors increasingly became a liability for the brand.

A costly exit

AntFin’s exit also represents a significant financial hit. It invested approximately Rs 33,600 crore in Paytm over the years but hasn’t seen meaningful returns. The 10% stake transferred to Resilient Asset Management in 2023 was structured as a debt owed by Sharma, to be repaid over time.

Paytm’s stock closed at Rs 1,052 on the BSE today, down 2.3% intraday. While the company’s share price has rebounded from Rs 480 to around Rs 1,100 in the past year, its current market capitalisation of $7.6 billion is still half of its peak private valuation.