Paytm Money enters mutual funds domain with SIPs starting at just Rs 100

Paytm Money Ltd, the wholly-owned subsidiary of One97 Communications Ltd targets to sell mutual fund to around 25 million people in the next three to five years, according to a senior executive.

 “About 50 million investors will be invested in mutual funds by the next three to five years. In that 50 million, we want to have a majority share, so around 20-25 million people,” Pravin Jadhav, whole-time director of Paytm Money told Moneycontrol over a telephonic interaction.

The company launched its app for mutual fund investments on Tuesday.  

The company is offering systematic investment plans (SIPs) for as low as Rs 100 in some of the schemes as it targets individual investors sitting in Tier2-3 cities.

It has partnered with 25 asset management companies to offer direct plans of mutual funds.

The company claims that 850,000 users have already registered on the platform. According to Jadhav, out of this, 65 percent of the people are from beyond the top 15 cities of the country.

One97 Communications has committed an investment of $10 million in Paytm Money which it plans to invest by the end of the financial year 2019.

This money is being invested in technology, development of products, design, engineering and setting up the entire function.

Last week, One97 Communications added Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway on its cap table. While the company did not disclose the size of the deal, it is expected to be in the range of $300-350 million. Berkshire joins the list of key shareholders in Paytm — Ant Financial, SoftBank, Alibaba and SAIF Partners.

“Access to wealth creation opportunities till today has been limited to a select few. With Paytm Money we want to democratise and bring mutual fund investments to millions of Indians,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder, and CEO of Paytm.