Indian digital payments company Paytm is close to finalizing a deal to raise US$2 billion from China's Ant Financial Services Group, Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. and other investors, Bloomberg News reported Oct. 14, citing a person familiar with the matter.

In addition, Discovery Capital Management LLC is in talks to participate in the funding round, which values Paytm at US$16 billion, the source said. The funding will be split evenly between equity and debt, and will help the Indian company compete with Facebook Inc., Google LLC and Flipkart Pvt. Ltd. in the country's payments market, according to the report.

Paytm, Discovery Capital and SoftBank declined to comment, while Ant Financial had no immediate comment on the matter, Bloomberg reported.

Separately, Mint quoted Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma as saying that the company will consider launching an IPO after 2021 when it is expected to generate positive cash flow.