New Delhi: Eyeing overseas expansion, mobile commerce firm Paytm on Wednesday appointed ex-head of Alibaba Group Holding’s wholesale business, Bhushan Patil, as its new president.

“We want to offer Indian merchants a compelling commerce platform and Bhushan brings incredible experience of building cross border commerce. “As Paytm continues to grow at an exponential pace, it is important for Paytm to expand its operations outside India for further development," Paytm CEO and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said in a statement.

His key areas at Paytm would include building company’s cross-border commerce. The appointment comes within a week of Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba, an investor in Paytm, saying that it is planning to enter India this year.

Patil served five-and-a-half years at the Chinese company, where he was handling operations of Alibaba.com. He was instrumental in leading new initiatives for global markets business development across SME linked associations, banks, government trade organisations, local trade services and e-companies.

“I’m thrilled to come on board at one of the fastest scaling payments and commerce platforms in the country and look forward to a mutually successful tenure at Paytm," Patil said.

Paytm claims to have over 125 million users. It is also planning to launch its payments bank soon. Paytm’s investors include Ant Financials (AliPay), Alibaba Group, SAIF Partners, Sapphire Venture and Silicon Valley Bank.

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