India’s financial services and digital payment company, Paytm, has acquired insurance firm Raheja QBE. The company has said that the latest acquisition will help the company in expanding its financial services and further consolidating its position in the financial services market.
Much of the financial details of the acquisition deal have not been official disclosed. The deal is subjected to regulatory approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).
Established in 2009, Raheja QBE is a joint venture between Rajan Raheja Group and QBE insurance, which is the second-largest global insurer and also one of the largest insurance companies in Australia. The joint venture company offers insurance services in personal and commercial space.
Paytm has said in a statement that all the employees of Raheja QBE would continue working at Mumbai and other locations.
Notably, this acquisition has been done through Q or Ql Pvt. Ltd, a lesser-known technology firm in which Vijay Shekhar Sharma owns majority stake while Paytm also owns strategic stake in the company.
The Noida headquartered company has said that the latest acquisition will help to speed-up their quest to taking insurance to Indian masses and “create a tech-driven, multi-channel general insurance company with innovative and affordable insurance products.”
Amit Nayyar, President at Paytm said, “It is an important milestone in Paytm’s financial services journey, and we are very excited to welcome Raheja QBE General Insurance into the Paytm family. Its strong management team will help us accelerate our journey of taking insurance to the large population of India with the aim to create a tech-driven, multi-channel general insurance company with innovative and affordable insurance products.”
Commenting on the development, QBE Australia Pacific Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Vivek Bhatia said, “Today’s announcement marks both a continuation of QBE’s strategy to simplify our business and the beginning of a new & exciting chapter for our strong team at Raheja QBE.”
With its core business of UPI digital payment facing immense competitive pressure from Google Pay and Phonepe, Paytm is facing more pressure than ever before to strengthen its position in other non-core businesses. In this respect, the company is apparently pinning lot of hopes on the financial services segment.
