Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma mentioned on Monday he’s open to growing his stake within the Indian fintech agency if there are sellers, weeks after he grew to become the biggest shareholder within the firm by shopping for stake from Chinese agency Antfin.

“Paytm is truly an Indian company. It is a milestone that I’m able to acquire more stake in my company,” Sharma instructed Reuters.

“Antfin has not indicated that they want to sell (a further) stake at the moment, but if they do, I will jump at any opportunity to buy more equity in Paytm,” he mentioned.

Paytm is specializing in its funds and credit score enterprise and is concentrating on free money stream of sizeable worth quickly, Sharma mentioned.

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Paytm on Monday additionally launched a US$12 “soundbox” gadget that lets retailers settle for each cell and card funds throughout networks together with Visa, Mastercard, American Express and home-grown RuPay, because it seems to be to draw extra subscribers from its giant community.

The soundbox gives immediate audio alerts on quantities paid to retailers by means of an inbuilt speaker.

Paytm competes with gamers similar to Google Pay and Walmart’s PhonePe in India, the place digital funds gained traction after the nation banned some high-value forex notes in 2016. Merchants from vegetable distributors to giant retail shops now settle for digital funds.

The focus is so as to add as many retailers as doable and have interaction with them, driving the recognition of soundbox, Sharma mentioned.

Paytm shares ended little modified on Monday, trimming some earlier losses. The inventory has rebounded sharply from November lows after the corporate reached operational profitability forward of schedule, however remains to be about 60 per cent off its IPO concern worth of two,150 rupees.