【India Startup × Corporate Co-Creation Case ①: Softbank (PayPay) & Paytm】
Have you ever imagined that in 2023, a staggering 63 million registered users —60% of Japan's adult population— are using Paytm's technology under the name PayPay? At lease, most of Japanese use them everyday without knowing this fact.
SoftBank and Yahoo Japan JV Launched “PayPay” in 2018, in Collaboration with India's Paytm and disrupted Japanese cash (bank notes and coins) culture, which was still the mainstream payment methodology, remaining at 80%.. This is an unprecedented example of reverse innovation, showcasing how Indian technology is making waves globally.
Japan’s SoftBank has invested $11Bn in Indian startups from November 2018, through SoftBank Investment Advisers. This has been in renowned names such as Paytm, Delhivery, Lenskart, Meesho, PolicyBazaar, OfBusiness, and others. Moreover it has already recorded exits of about $6.2Bn over the past 5 years, with 4 IPOs (including Paytm) in 2023 itself and 3 new IPOs - Swiggy, FirstCry, and Ola, geared for 2024. One of its marquee investments was in Paytm with a cumulative investment of $1.4Bn in 2017.
In a statement issued in early 2018, SoftBank also held a sizable stake in Yahoo! Japan, which ran its own Yahoo! Japan wallet even during 2018. However, at that time, the smartphone payment settlement service involved the user showing a barcode to the store staff, who then proceeded to scan the code, requiring a handheld barcode reader in the store. This is where SoftBank, which has been continuously leveraging its global late-stage tech investments, came in with a technological partnership with its portfolio company Paytm.
The partnership with a portfolio company that SoftBank had been working with for some time, and knew from the inside out alleviated the risk it was bearing by relying on Paytm for the tech-stack. Together, the three companies developed PayPay, a payment platform which allowed users to scan QR codes in shops to make payments. The team which comprised of members from India, Japan, and Canada, launched the product in 3 months from the ideation to the launch!
There is a common saying in India - ‘If you can drive in India, you can drive anywhere in the world’. This is because India’s roads are challenging and dynamic to say the least. Similarly, PayPay leveraged Paytm’s reliable digital and security infrastructure, which had been battle-tested in the challenging digital landscape of India. It showed how technology that can survive in India, can survive anywhere in the world!
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#Softbank #PayPay #Paytm
Alex Lin Akul Jindal, CFA Priya Mohan Hemant Agarwal ソフトバンクグループ PayPay株式会社 PayPay India Yahoo Mohannad El-Khairy Saya I. Tushar Agarwal Joshua Soo Benny Tjia Koshu K. Milan Thakkar Tanmay Deshpande