FreeCharge Says PayPal’s Not Really Buying a Stake In the Company

The digital wallet company has denied reports that the global payment company is buying a stake in it.

Dismissing reports that global payments platform PayPal is set to buy a 25 percent stake in homegrown e-wallet FreeCharge, a company spokesperson on Monday has denied any such development.

Media reports claimed on Sunday that PayPal is expected to take a significant stake in FreeCharge for around $200 million.

There is no basis to a speculative media story about FreeCharge and PayPal being in discussion about a stake sale. There is no such discussion/proposal and the story is completely incorrect.

FreeCharge Spokesperson

Even though Paytm was the clear winner post-demonetisation, Freecharge claims that since 8 November, the use of its wallet grew by a factor of 12 and has been increasing by the same average since then.

Interestingly, PayPal was recently in the news accusing Paytm of using their colour and font schematics for its logo. This and the reports of buying stake in Freecharge raised doubts in the industry about why PayPal would file a copyright complaint against the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-owned digital wallet brand.

Founded in 2010, FreeCharge was acquired by Snapdeal in April last year for nearly $450 million.