With an aim to expand its global footprint, fintech firm Paytm is all set to acquire a 25% stake in a Brazilian embedded finance start-up ‘Dinie’. The company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Paytm Cloud Technologies, on Monday approved an investment of $1 million for the acquisition of Seven Technology LLC (Dinie’s parent company).
In a regulatory filing, Paytm wrote, “This investment would help in understanding the merchants’ business landscape and opportunity in the Brazilian market. We believe that our technology led merchant payments and financial services distribution business model in India, has the potential for expansion in similar international markets.”
The acquisition deal is expected to be completed within 45 days, with Paytm making the whole investment in cash. Once the deal is completed, Seven Technology and Dinie will become associate entities of the One97 Communication, the parent company of Paytm.
While Seven Technology has no standalone operations, Dinie enables e-commerce platforms to provide digital financial services solutions to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Brazil. It is pertinent to note that Dinie recorded a huge decline in its revenue over the past three years, i.e., from BRL 4.01 million in 2022 to BRL 357,920 in 2024.
Paytm’s Global Expansion Plans
During the company’s quarterly earnings call on January 20, Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma talked about the fintech firm’s plans to set up businesses in UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. His main motive of global expansion is to leverage Paytm’s tech-enabled merchant payments and financial services in ‘similar international markets’ like India, and to seek local licenses along with partnerships.
The subsidiaries were scheduled to be established within six months, with an initial investment of upto Rs 20 crore allocated in tranches for each. “We are looking to rationalise our other overseas subsidiaries,” said Madhur Deora, Paytm’s chief financial officer.
At present, the fintech firm has many subsidiaries (direct or step-down) in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa. However, nearly none of these subsidiaries align with Paytm’s core business, instead stemming from the legacy One97 Communications business --- provides marketing services to telecom operators, she added.
The company reported a net loss of Rs 208.3 crore during the third quarter of FY25, reducing from Rs 291.8 crore in the same quarter last year. Its consolidated revenue from operations also witnessed a significant drop of 36% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1,827.8 crore from Rs 2,850.5 crore. However, the fintech firm has achieved 10% revenue growth on quarter-on-quarter basis.
