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SAIF, Tiger in $50m round for online discount start-up

  • Andrew Woodman
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Paytm has joined SAIF Partners and Tiger Global to lead a $50 million round of funding for Little, an Indian online discount start-up launched by the founders of fashion e-commerce platform Zovi.

Little is an app-based mobile-first marketplace offering deals with offline merchants such as restaurants, movies, hotels, salons, gyms, and spas. The new business will use the funding to hire senior-level talent, build out its merchant ecosystem, and develop its tech platform.

The start-up is targeting 50,000 deals in 11 cities by next March. Little currently has a team of 400 and expects to reach 1,000 by the middle of next year. In a statement the company said it is targeting an Indian online-to-offline (O2O) market estimated to be worth $64 billion by 2016.

Paytm's investment is expected to give the payments provider a stronger foothold in the hyperlocal space. The firm recently led a INR320 million ($5 million) Series A investment in autorickshaw-hailing service Jugnoo alongside Snow Leopard Technology Ventures. The plan is that Little will be a deal-hunting platform for smart phone users while Jugnoo offers last mile hyperlocal delivery.

Currently, the biggest player in India's discount group-buying space is Groupon India which recently raised $20 million from Sequoia Capital.

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