Paytm– Company Profile

Paytm is the leading digital payment gateway and digital wallet in India, providing a host of payment services to consumers and businesses. Paytm offers varied payment services such as mobile recharges, utility bill payments, movie tickets, bus, train, and flight tickets, loan payments, insurance, forex, etc. Consumers can link their bank accounts and credit cards to Paytm to enjoy seamless payments at various retail markets and online avenues. A subsidiary of parent company One97 Communications, Paytm has been credited with launching QR based mobile payments in the country. It provides payment solutions to more than 7 million merchants and has millions of registered users. Paytm has emerged as a significant contributor in achieving the Digital India dream that is being pursued aggressively by the Indian government.

History:

Every success story has the trail of a difficult and challenging journey, something that applies to Paytm as well. The credit for creating the success for Paytm goes to its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who overcame numerous challenges in his entrepreneurial journey. Vijay faced challenges in education as well since he had limited knowledge in English. This prevented him from taking competitive exams such as IIT. However, he took a fascination for computer programming and soon nurtured the dream to make it big in Silicon Valley. While trying to launch One97 Communications, Vijay faced significant funding issues and he had to take costly loans. He had to work hard to be able to repay the costly loans. However, with the government’s increased focus on digitization, Paytm grewexponentially and attracted a host of investors. Paytm is currently valued at more than $10 billion. It has also launched other products such as Paytm Mall and Paytm Payments Bank. The license to operate the payments bank was provided by RBI in 2015.

Funding:

Paytm has received multi-million dollar funding from top investors such as Alibaba Group, Softbank, Ant Financial, SAIF Partners, and Mountain Capital.

Acquisitions:

Paytm has made various acquisitions over the years such as Near.in, Shifu, EduKart, Shopsity, Insider.in, Little, nearbuy, TicketNew, Cube26, NightStay, and Balance.

Competition:

Paytm competes with other digital payment service providers such as MobiKwik, Freecharge, Payumoney, Oxigen, Rechargeitnow, etc. All other digital wallets introduced by various businesses are also actively competing with Paytm.

About the Founder:

Paytm was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who currently serves as the company’s CEO. He has been ranked the youngest billionaire in India. The achievement came in 2017 and was conferred by Forbes that estimated Vijay’s worth at $1.3 billion. Vijay is an alumnus of Delhi College of Engineering. Prior to launching One97 Communications in 2000, Vijayhad worked at Startec Global Systems, India Today Group Online, Intersolutions India Pvt Ltd and RiverRun Software Group.