Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma-backed Pai Platforms has unveiled a new shopping app on Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). According to a report by the news platform Moneycontrol, the parent company of the fintech, One97 Communications, has developed the PaiPai app. However, Paytm does not own any shares in Pai Platform.
In February, Paytm E-commerce Private Limited renamed itself as Pai Platforms and acquired Bengaluru-based Bitsila, a seller-side platform on ONDC.
The report, citing industry watchers, added that the decision to launch the e-commerce app might be due to the recent Reserve Bank of India (RBI) action on its banking arm, Paytm Payments Bank Limited.
On January 31, 2024, the apex bank stopped the PPBL from accepting deposits or top-ups in any customer account, prepaid instruments, wallets, FASTags, and NCMC cards after February 29, 2024. According to media reports, the RBI was apprehensive about KYC and other rules being flaunted by the PPBL.
The report also mentioned Sharma's comment from last year in which he had said that e-commerce is a natural extension for the company. "We are committing to sign up at least 10 million merchants on ONDC before 2025 ends," he had said.
Speaking at the event, he had said that 11.8 million users have already shopped on ONDC through Paytm. "This means that ONDC has already become a significant player in e-commerce. There are around 50 million e-commerce users in India and over a fifth are already on ONDC," he added.
Sharma had added that ONDC will open up the e-commerce opportunity for a lot of opportunities, as per the report.
Before rebranded as Pai Platforms, the company was running its e-commerce by the name of Paytm Mall. This arm of the company had raised $400 million from investors like Alibaba and SoftBank at a valuation of over $2 billion in early 2018.
