FreeCharge gets additional Rs 30cr funding from Jasper Infotech

Jasper Infotech, the parent company of online marketplace Snapdeal has pumped in an additional Rs 30 crore in its payments platform FreeCharge according to the documents filed with the registrar of companies.

As per the filed documents, Jasper purchased the additional shares following a board resolution on February 23. This also follows a special resolution passed in December last year where FreeCharge increased its authorised share capital to Rs 1,006 crore from Rs 6 crore, setting the stage for a significant round of funding.

Coming in at a critical time, this is the second capital infusion by the parent company in FreeCharge this year. Earlier, in January, Jasper Infotech invested Rs 390 crore in the Bangalore-based mobile wallet provider.

There have been rumors about PayPal investing in FreeCharge or Snapdeal being in talks with some rival mobile payment companies such as PayPal, Paytm and PayU to sell FreeCharge but nothing has materialised so far.

Jasper Infotech, which has been looking to raise money for FreeCharge for over a year has found it difficult to rope in investors—strategic or financial—to back its payments unit. The reason mainly seems to be valuation mismatches, reluctance to cede control and the ongoing reluctance of global investors to pump in the further capital.

Freecharge's CEO, Govind Rajan resigned from the company last month. Presently, former Housing.com CEO Jason Kothari, who joined Snapdeal last month as its chief strategy and investment officer, is overseeing FreeCharge’s business operations, as part of his overall responsibilities of portfolio management.