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SoftBank- and Alibaba-backed digital payments and e-commerce firm Paytm is all set to acquire NightStay Travels Pvt. Ltd, a Delhi company that operates a mobile-based marketplace for last-minute hotel bookings, a person familiar with the development told VCCircle. 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. 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. In May last year, VCCircle had reported that NightStay had raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A round led by the Indian Angel Network and LetsVenture. Paytm, founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, started off as a mobile recharge platform. But it has diversified to become a digital payments and e-commerce company. It has also started a payments bank. For the financial year ended March 2017, One97 Communications registered a wider operating loss as it continued to burn cash heavily. Its consolidated loss before exceptional items, interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation expanded to Rs 1,304 crore from Rs 1,204.6 crore the previous year. Read Original Article |
