?Paytm replaces traditional meal voucher with food wallet

Paytm will lead $15 million funding round in Bengaluru-based food catering platform HungerBox. This fundraising round will also be seeing participation from the company’s existing investors.

Paytm’s move is marking its foray into the organised food technology for institutions category. It will help the company to tap into the high-frequency B2B food ordering business. 

HungerBox had raised $4.5 million in a Series A round in July 2017. This round was led by Neoplux and Sabre Partners, an India-focused private equity fund. Singapore-based Lionrock Capital and Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-Founder of Infosys, also participated in the round. 

A person aware of the deal said, “HungerBox has been growing three times year-on-year, and it fits in with Paytm’s strategy of a deep integrated play across all categories.”

“Paytm’s O2O strategy involves launching PoS and invoicing for merchants. Similarly, the HungerBox investment is an entry into the food and beverage management solutions business from the merchant’s side,” he further stated. 

Online ordering and food delivery business currently contributes about 65 per cent to the overall revenue of Zomato. To further expand these numbers, Zomato announces a partnership with Paytm enabling its food ordering and delivery services on Paytm’s mobile app.

Customers can now browse restaurants listed on the online delivery platform on the Paytm app as well and order food instantly. Currently live for all Paytm Android app users in Delhi-NCR, this service  will soon be made available across India and on the iOS app as well.

Zomato currently lists over 80 thousand restaurants across 120+ cities and delivers orders at a monthly order run rate of 28 million. With this integration, Zomato will be able to extend the convenience and accessibility of online food ordering to the pan-India Paytm user base as well.

Speaking on the development, Mohit Gupta, CEO, Food Delivery, Zomato said, “Paytm is the most popular digital payments platform, with extensive reach across the length and breadth of the country. We are excited to be partnering with them to integrate our online food delivery service with their mobile app. This will allow us to reach a much larger user base and add to the overall experience of ordering from Zomato.”

Paytm has a strong user-base in tier 2 & tier 3 cities, where users frequently use its services for a wide array of everyday payments and Food & Beverage is among one of the largest payment categories for Paytm both in terms of volume and number of transactions.

“Our association with Zomato is a valuable addition to our platform in bringing the convenience of ordering food online on our app. A vast majority of our customers are from the tier 2 & tier 3 cities, with this new addition we are confident of driving the growth of online food ordering further across the country,” added, Renu Satti, Senior Vice President, Paytm.

SoftBank and Alibaba-backed digital payments and e-commerce firm Paytm has bought NightStay Travels Pvt. Ltd, a Delhi company that operates a mobile-based marketplace for last-minute hotel bookings.

NightStay co-founder Nasr Khan confirmed the development. He didn’t give any details.

A Paytm spokesperson didn’t respond to email queries and text messages seeking comment till the time of publishing this article.

Earlier in the day, The Times of India reported, without mentioning the source of the information, that NightStay was acquired for around $20 million (around Rs 130 crore) in a cash-and-equity deal. The report also said that the entire team of NightStay will join Paytm.

NightStay was founded by Khan and Deepak Negi in March 2015. It procures unsold inventory from hotel owners at a discount and offers the rooms under three categories – boutique, business and luxury class. It does not offer concessions on the discounted price.

An IIM-Calcutta alumnus, Khan is the chief executive of the venture. He was earlier the vice president of the products vertical at Sanjeev Bhikchandani-led Info Edge (India) Ltd. Negi, an alumnus of the Symbiosis Center for Management Studies, is the chief operating officer of NightStay.

The NightStay app is available on both Android and iOS platforms. It operates across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Goa, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Pune, Agra and Chandigarh.

Cafe Coffee Day, one of the largest coffee chains in India has partnered with mobile commerce and payments platform Paytm for online payments.

Customers can now pay their coffee bill at the Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) outlet using Paytm Wallet.

With across 1,400 outlets offering the Paytm Wallet, this tie-up is foraying actively into the offline space with its digital wallet and is specifically tapping Quick Service Restaurants where customers typically prefer fast turn-around and transaction times.

"We are excited to partner with CCD for enabling payments through Paytm in their 1400 outlets,” shared Kiran Vasireddy, Sr. Vice President-Paytm.

The Paytm Wallet has become a default mode of payment for customers for a wide variety of services in the country including taxi rides, food ordering and money transfers etc.

"Paytm users will now be able to pay for their coffee through their favorite payment option- Paytm Cash. This is a part of our overall thrust to drive digital transactions in offline scenarios as we work towards our vision of a cashless nation," added Kiran.

The association with Cafe Coffee Day will further help Paytm to cement its position as the preferred way to transact across online and offline platforms.

On the back of its plans to expand in the offline space as well as its strong merchant relationships, Paytm recently announced its target of tripling its daily transactions to 10 million.

Paytm, India’s largest mobile commerce platform, announces biggest ever Online Food Festival from 9th to 11th October 2015.

The festival will offer widest selection of cuisines, exciting offers to customers who order from over 20,000 restaurants and chefs spread over 100+ cities in India through multiple online and offline food partners of Paytm's mobile wallet. Paytm expects to triple the traction for its food category during the festival period.

Speaking on the festival, Kiran Vasireddy, Sr Vice President Business said, “We are thrilled to present our first Online Food Festival this October. By offering widest variety of cuisine along with exceptional deals and discounts to our user base, our larger objective is to generate greater awareness and traction for food ordering in India. We wish to make transactions in this space cashless and help consumers discover how convenient, efficient, engaging and rewarding it is to order grub with a few clicks!”

Paytm has tied up with leading Indian online food ordering platforms such as Foodpanda, Dominos, Zomato, Swiggy, Faasos, Tiny Owl and Holachef along with Offline QSR chains such as Pizza Hut, Costa Coffee and Vaango to make this festival truly attractive for consumers.

On the heels of the recent announcement of partnerships with last-mile delivery players, Zomato has further enhanced its consumer offering by announcing a partnership with Paytm to make the online ordering experience even smoother for its customers.

Paytm Wallet is the first mobile wallet to be integrated into Zomato, and allows for a smooth in-app cashless payment experience.

“At Zomato, we look to create seamless and delightful customer experiences, and integrating Paytm Wallet into our product is another step in that direction. Customers can now use Zomato to order online from a huge number of restaurants, and enjoy the convenience of making completely cashless payments using the Paytm Wallet,” shared Tanmay Saksena, Global Business Head, Zomato Order.

Consumers using the Paytm Wallet to pay for meals ordered on the Zomato app or website will get an additional 10 per cent cash-back into their wallets. This offer is valid from 4th September until the end of Sunday, 6th September.

Amit Lakhotia, Vice President, Paytm said, “We are delighted to integrate Paytm Wallet on Zomato. It’s the leading food discovery and ordering platform in India, and has the largest consumer base in this space. This gives our 100 million Paytm Wallet users another big destination where they can use the wallet to transact and pay. Food ordering is a prime use case for Paytm Wallet users, and the association with Zomato will be great for our users. This is in sync with our mission of moving towards a cashless environment in India.”

Earlier this week, Zomato announced strategic investments in last-mile delivery players Grab and Pickingo, and a partnership with Delhivery to improve the last-mile delivery experience for users ordering online on Zomato.

Zomato has grown from a search and discovery portal into a horizontal platform offering a slew of technology solutions for the restaurant industry. This includes the launch of online ordering services, in-app cashless payments, and the soon-to-be-launched table reservation and point-of-sale systems.

Paytm, India’s largest mobile commerce platform is tempting all foodies to dine out and indulge in a wonderful gastronomical affair by entering into a partnership with Dineout.co.in, India’s one of the largest table reservation service.

Through the Dineout loyalty programme users can enjoy the advantages of having a table reserved, discounts and additional savings in the form of cashback and loyalty points credited into their Paytm wallets.

“After speaking to many Dineout users we arrived at a loyalty program where our valued patrons can reap the benefits of sticking with a great service. Paytm was an obvious choice for this partnership owing to their wide consumer reach, and the ease of use of the service,” said Ankit Mehrotra, Co-Founder, Dineout.co.in. Loyalty points can be earned once the user books a table using the Dineout service.

By completing simple tasks such as writing reviews, inviting friends and checking-in while at the restaurant through the Dineout app, users earn loyalty points.

All these points are redeemable to Cash directly into a users Paytm wallet. Commenting on the partnership, Amit Lakhotia, Vice President, Paytm said, “Paytm and Dineout enjoy massive popularity and the loyalty programme that we have devised is a truly innovative concept for the benefit of our users. Paytm is committed to coming up with extremely innovative tie-ups to offer customers maximum benefit while using their digital wallets. Through this first-of-its-kind partnership, we aim to give food connoisseurs in India another reason to turn to technology for the most convenient and rewarding dining out experience till date.”