Jasper Infotech invests Rs 390cr in FreeCharge

Jasper Infotech that also owns and operates online marketplace Snapdeal has invested around Rs 390 crore ($57 million) into FreeCharge, according to a report in The Economic Times quoting a filing submitted to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) in the last week of December.

The funding comes at a time when the Gurgaon-based unicorn is reportedly in the process of raising equity financing round for its digital payments platform.

According to the news report, the investment also follows a special resolution passed in the first week of December, where FreeCharge increased its authorised share capital from Rs 6 crore to Rs 1,006 crore.

It was recently reported that global payments platform PayPal Holdings Inc. was in final stages of closing a deal to take a 25 percent stake in the domestic digital payments platform.

Digital payments platforms like FreeCharge, Paytm and MobiKwik have been riding a wave of success post demonetization with a humongous increase in digital payments and mobile wallet transactions.

Founded in 2010 by Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon, FreeCharge was acquired by Snapdeal in 2015. FreeCharge has now become key to Jasper's business, as it continues to build a comprehensive online ecosystem of goods and services, following in the footsteps of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.