Mobile payment services firm Paytm, which recently started foraying into e-commerce space, is looking to hire 1,900 people for its product engineering and operations division during the rest of the current fiscal year.

The new hiring plans by the company will take its total employee base to 5,000 by end-March.

About two-thirds of the newly hired people will be employed in operations and the remaining in product engineering, vice-president of business and people at Paytm Amit Sinha told The Economic Times.

Recently, the Noida-based company hired many people for its sales unit. With foreign investors pumping in huge funds and growing competition in the sector, online retailers have been fast exploring ways to enhance their products and services.

A major chunk of investments made by the e-commerce firms will go into making new products, by forming strong engineering teams.

Another e-commerce major, Snapdeal, has also announced similar plans of expanding its engineering team to 2,000 by the end of this financial year.

Paytm, which recently entered the elite group of startups with a $1 billion valuation, is expected to open a new office in Noida to "accommodate its rising headcount".

"We have two new office setups coming up with 3,000 seats (one with a seating capacity for 1,700 and the other for 1,300)," Sinha said.

"Part of the facility has been operational ... the new sites would be fully operational by August," he said.

At the new office, Paytm will offer a day care facility for its employees having small kids. Other companies in the domestic e-commerce sector have also recently rolled out a few employee retention measures to contain high attrition levels.

Paytm, which is backed by Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group, has opened an office in Toronto, Canada, recently. The firm plans to rope in people from Silicon Valley to handle its overseas operations.

"We have been talking to some people and we would definitely hire someone from Silicon Valley," said Sinha.

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