Paytm Mall in talks to invest $200 million in BigBasket Alibaba-backed online marketplace Paytm Mall has initiated discussions to pick up a stake in BigBasket, while the online grocer’s sale talks with Seattle-based online retail giant Amazon have been stuck the past few weeks, according to two people familiar with the development.

Paytm Mall set to hire 2,000 employees in 2017 Online shopping platform Paytm Mall is set to hire nearly 2,000 new personnel across various business and tech roles to effectively scale its operations.

HANGZHOU: Paytm Mall, the online retail platform spun off from mobile wallet Paytm owner One97 Communications, will soon start cross-border shipping of Indian brands to China on its platform.The company, which has an office in Hangzhou province where Alibaba is headquartered, plans to ship Indian products to China within seven days of order placement. Alibaba and its payments affiliate, Ant Financial, together hold about 40% stake in One97 Communications, and over 50% in Paytm Mall. "We want to help 1,00,000 Indian SMEs sell in China. We will help them build a catalogue in the language and I want Indian brands like Raymonds and Eicher Motors to sell in China," Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO of Paytm said on the sidelines of the Alibaba Group Global Netrepreneur Conference. Alipay Plus, the wallet ecosystem created by Ant Financial and its investee companies, will help process cross-border transactions, he said."Right now, we don't have a wallet aggregator like a card aggregator. Ant Financial will build this, where you can pay through Alipay and partners," said Sharma adding that Paytm was the first global partner for Alipay. ET had reported in its Tuesday (July 10) edition that Paytm Mall was evaluating a stake in BigBasket."Paytm is an online-to-offline platform and BigBasket is in that category. Grocery is something you want delivered the same day or next day," said Sharma. Paytm Mall delivered 18% orders the same day through its platform in June. In addition to Paytm Mall business, Paytm Payments Bank, launched in March, has set a target of enrolling 500 million CASA (current account, saving account) by 2020. At present, Paytm has 200 million wallet users who will be transferred to the bank gradually. "The plan is to grow customers, grow users as of now," said Sharma. Paytm Mall was not looking to raise capital immediately as cash burn had come down over time in India, he said."We had to chase growth by throwing money but now that has come down. We recently raised $200 million for Paytm Mall and that's a lot of money if we are not reckless with it. Now, it is long-term capital and companies are not doing that."( The author is in Hangzhou at the invitation of Alibaba)