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Making bill payments and paying shops and other individuals are really essential in our day-to-day lives. The handling of cash was the only way to make such payments. However, the rapid expansion of markets, widening of our daily needs, and the prevailing digital drive have proved the loopholes of cash-based transactions and established online money transactions as promising alternatives. Besides, cash-based transactions have largely grown to be unsafe and lacking in transparency. Furthermore, with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, cash transactions are also deemed quite vulnerable.
Digital transactions have already received a major boost during the demonetization followed by the Covid-19 pandemic along with the large-scale digitalization drives across the country. Paytm is one of the oldest digital payment apps, which has brought about a watershed moment in the history of payments in India. The company encourages payments through mobile with its famous tagline 'Paytm Karo.'
The company was founded in 2010 and is based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Here is a detailed description of the successful journey of the company.
Paytm - Company Highlights
| Startup Name | Paytm |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Noida, Uttar Pradesh |
| Industry | FinTech |
| Founders | Vijay Shekhar Sharma |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Total Funding | $3.54 billion |
| Revenue | $144.75 mn (Rs 1,086.4 crore in FY21) |
| Valuation | $16 bn (October 2021) |
| Parent Organization | One97 Communications |
| Website | www.paytm.com |
| Tagline | Paytm Karo |
Paytm - About
Paytm - Latest News
Paytm - Founders and Team
Paytm - Vision and Mission
Paytm - Name, Tagline, and Logo
Paytm - Awards
Paytm - Growth and Revenue
Paytm - Funding and Investors
Paytm - IPO
Paytm - Business and Revenue Model
Paytm - Value Proposition
Paytm - Partnerships
Paytm - Acquisitions
Paytm - Competitors
Paytm - Future Plans
FAQs
Paytm - About
Paytm is a leading financial service and bill payments app that offers financial solutions to its customers, mobile, DTH recharge facilities, and more through its platform. Paytm e-commerce parent organization is One97 Communications. The Paytm main office/head office is based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
The Paytm company was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010. The platform was initially designed to cater to the merchants and the customers to help them send and receive money online. The company rapidly grew popular and expanded to include wallet services, e-commerce facilities, and more to make life easier for the Indians.
Paytm Payments Bank is said to be the country’s largest digital bank with more than 58 million account holders. ‘Paytm Money’ is regarded as the biggest investment platform and contributes to Systematic Investment Plans (SIP) in the Mutual Funds Industry.
It has also gained access to launch its services in Stock Broking, and National Pension System (NPS). Furthermore, Paytm First Games and Paytm Insurance have also gathered the usage of millions of people globally. Besides, Paytm also launched a mini app store to support Indian app developers and entrepreneurs.
Paytm - Latest News
December 3, 2021 - Paytm's wholly-owned subsidiary Paytm Money launches "PMS Marketplace," which will help manage funds for the individuals with a minimum investment folio of Rs 50 lakhs. This partnership venture is mainly focused on the HNIs (High Net Worth individuals).
November 27, 2021 - Paytm sees around a 63.6% rise in its revenue from operations during the July-September quarter.
November 24, 2021 - Paytm parent sees a further rise in its stock price, which has recovered nearly by 29% in the past two days. The market capitalization of the company has crossed the 1 lakh crore mark once again.
November 23, 2021 - The shares of Paytm parent One97 Communications finally witness a rise of 9% after two days of decline.
November 22, 2021 - Paytm saw a further dip in its share price on the second day of trading, which has hit an all-time low of Rs 1,283 per share, thereby falling by nearly 37%. This has also affected the market capitalization of the company, which has significantly declined from Rs 1.01 Lakh Cr ($13.64 Bn) in the first session to stand at Rs 83,825.03 Cr ($11.26 Bn).
November 18, 2021 - Paytm's shares crashed. Initially opening at Rs 1,950, which is around a 9.3% decline from its issue price on the NSE, it significantly dropped during the day to reach as low as 28% in its stock market debut after witnessing India's biggest IPO round.
November 10, 2021 - Paytm will close its IPO round today with offers subscribed more than 56%, which was 48% at the end of Day 2.
November 8, 2021 - Paytm opens its IPO round today and will close on 10th November. The retail portion of the company's IPO has been reportedly booked 36% within the first hour of its opening today.
November 3, 2021 - Paytm raises around $1.1 bn worth of funding from its anchor investors in the largest anchor round that India has seen till now.
October 22, 2021 - Paytm has successfully received the nod from SEBI and will finally be launching its much-anticipated INR 16,600 crores IPO.
October 20, 2021 - Paytm appoints its newly appointed President, Compliance and Operations, Deepankar Sanwalka as the Director of the company. It is just four months since he joined Paytm in May 2021. Sanwalka will serve as a whole-time director and key managerial personnel for the next 5 years.
October 8, 2021 - Paytm is looking forward to bring in sovereign wealth funds as anchor investors in the company's pre-IPO placement.
October 5, 2021 - Switzerland-based insurance giant, Swiss RE might join Paytm's insurance business' board.
October 3, 2021 - Paytm has acquired 100% stakes in CreditMate, a Mumbai-based digital lending startup.
September 9, 2021 - Paytm Money, a wholly owned subsidiary of Paytm launches ‘WealthBasket,’ a wealth and advisory marketplace designed to offer curated advisory products and services for the retail investors of the country.
September 9, 2021 - Paytm sees Ajay Shekhar Sharma, brother of Paytm CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, as the CBO (Chief Business Officer).
14 June, 2021 - Paytm announced that users from all over the country will now be able to find their Covid-19 vaccination slots and book them right from the Paytm app.
26 August 2021 - Paytm declares to allot equity shares amounting to Rs 189 crores to 166 of its present and former employees.
14 June 2021 - Paytm unveils stock options amounting to $12 Million and started its employee reward policy through its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), which is made available for the existing and former employees.
18 September 2020 - Paytm First Games has been suspended from the Google Play Store for violating its policies. It is said that Google does not allow online casinos or support any unregulated gambling apps that facilitate sports betting.
18 September 2020 - Vijay Shekhar Sharma tweeted that the Paytm app is back live on Play Store with the support of the people and stated that CashBack and Scratchcards are not gambling. The ban that was put into effect earlier by Google Playstore on the app on the grounds of violating the company's rules around gambling was lifted later on.
#Paytm out of Google Play Store.
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) September 18, 2020
Google: We don’t allow online casinos/support any unregulated gambling apps that facilitate sports betting. It includes if app leads consumers to an external website that allows them to participate in paid tournaments to win real money/cash prizes pic.twitter.com/poeZzXw5nA
Thanks everyone for your support! Paytm App is back, live in Play Store. 🙏🏼
— Vijay Shekhar Sharma (@vijayshekhar) September 18, 2020
We launched a UPI CashBack campaign this morning. Our app got suspended by Google for this.
India, you decide if giving cash back is gambling. 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/w5Rcrs6lLT
Paytm - Founders and Team
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the founder and CEO of Paytm. Sharma is counted among the top digital entrepreneurs in India. He was ranked as India’s youngest billionaire in 2017 by Forbes when his net worth was calculated at $1.3 billion. The Paytm CEO is also a recipient of the highest civilian honor of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, Yash Bharati. He was also featured in In 2020, he was ranked as the #62nd richest person in India
Vijay was born in a middle-class family in Aligarh and was naturally good in academics, owing to his father being a school teacher. Though he was a bright student, he was schooled in a Hindi medium school and soon realized his weakness in English during his college admissions. However, Vijay didn't yield to it and confronted and conquered his fears most dauntingly. He was later admitted to the Delhi College of Engineering from where he earned his Btech in Electronics and Communications Engineering.
The entrepreneurial itch was always in him. Vijay developed indiasite.net while he was still in college in 1997 to start with his entrepreneurial journey. After 2 years, he sold his website for $1 million but only to scale new heights as an entrepreneur. He founded One97 Communications in 2000 to offer mobile news content, ringtones, jokes, cricket scores, and exam results. This company later became the cradle of Paytm, which he started in 2010 with an initial investment of $2 million in Noida.
Paytm has operated with an efficient team that has progressed with the growth of the company. However, not all of them have remained with the company. Yes, the company, much like the others, has seen quite a number of employees quitting the firm. Amit Nayyar, who served as a President for 20 months, was the latest to leave the company on July 9, 2020. According to sources close to Nayyar, he has put down his papers due to personal reasons. The resignation of Rohit Thakur was the last known top-level resignation of Paytm.
Paytm - Vision and Mission
Paytm’s goal is to enhance digital excellence, increase earning growth, and cross-selling opportunities. The company also wants to leverage its capabilities and value propositions to increase its market position. Furthermore, Paytm wants to bring half a billion Indians into the mainstream economy through their financial services.
Paytm - Name, Tagline, and Logo
Paytm payments bank logo is designed in two shades of blue - navy blue and sky blue, which is the brand color, where the brand name is written as "paytm". Paytm has a simple but memorable logo that contributes to its brand recognition.
Paytm denotes ‘Pay through Mobile’, representing the digital transactional services of the company. The company's vision tagline is ‘Paytm Karo’.
Paytm - Awards
| Year | Awards |
|---|---|
| 2012 | Paytm got the ‘Most Innovative Startup of the Year’ Award from Franchise India |
| 2013 | The company was recognized by Knowledge Fabre Best Mobile Wallet Program Award |
| 2014 | ‘Gold Winner’ at the MMA Smarties under the category of Mobile App. Paytm was the winner of the Indian Express IT Award |
| 2015 | The company got the Best Digital Wallet Award at IAMAI India Digital Award in Delhi |
| 2016 | Paytm was the winner of the FT Future of Fintech Award. It also won ET Brand Equity Most Trusted Brand of the Year |
| 2017 | Paytm was awarded the Diamond SABRE Award in Company of the Year at SABRE Awards. The company also won Best Consumer Mobile Service Award at the 11thIAMAI India Digital Summit |
Yash Gupta
Paytm - Growth and Revenue
Paytm saw a 63.6% rise in its revenues during the July-September quarter, which are recorded at Rs 1,086.4 crore. The operational revenues were reported to be around Rs 663.9 crore during the same period in the last fiscal. This jump in revenue has been mainly attributed to the non-UPI payment volumes (GMV), which saw a 52% growth, and to the financial services and other revenues, which increased by more than 3X.
The Fintech unicorn has witnessed a 50% growth in its total income, which is reported at Rs 1,134.5 crore during the period mentioned above, which was at Rs 758.1 crore, in Q2FY21.
Paytm had its latest Series G round of funding from the investor "T Rowe Price" in November 2019. This led the total valuation of the company to rise to $16 Billion.
The total income of Paytm, which was recorded at Rs 3,540.8 crore in FY20, has dropped to Rs 3,186.8 crore in FY21. This sudden drop in the income of the Fintech giant can be traced to the reduced commercial activities as a result of the pandemic-induced lockdowns.
Paytm had filled its DHRP where the company announced that it would be raising an amount of Rs 18,300 crores through IPO. The company further aims to make a new subsidiary out of the payments aggregator business that it manages. This new Paytm subsidiary will reportedly be called Paytm Payments Services Limited. The deadline to adhere to the RBI's payment aggregator rules is closing in on Paytm, which is looking to hold an extraordinary general meeting to announce the establishment of its new subsidiary, which is currently pending approval from its shareholders.
Paytm - Funding and Investors
The company has amassed funding of around $3.54 billion over more than 15 rounds.
| Date | Stage | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 2019 | Series G | $1B | T Rowe Price |
| February 2017 | Funding Round | $29.64 mn | Vijay Shekhar Sharma |
| March 2015 | Secondary Market | - | - |
| February 2015 | Private Equity Round | - | - |
| January 2014 | Series A | - | - |
Paytm – IPO
Aiming for what was estimated to be the biggest IPO issue after Coal India, Paytm roped in sovereign wealth funds to stand as its anchor investors in the Pre-IPO placement of Paytm, as per the reports dated October 8, 2021. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (AIDA), Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) are some of the prominent investors who were in talks with Paytm for the same. Furthermore, the list also includes the US-based BlackRock and the Japanese financial holding company, Nomura.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led Paytm has successfully received approval from SEBI, which was pending from July 2021, when it filed its DRHP with the market regulator to raise Rs 16,600 crores.
The all-awaited mega Paytm IPO round of INR 18, 300 crores, had opened on November 8, 2021, at a price band of INR 2,080-INR 2,150. According to the reports, the retail investors of the company have subscribed to 36% or 0.36 times of their earmarked shares right in the first hour of the offer. The retail individual investors and non-institutional investors were the ones that pitched in during the first hour. The company had been successful in raising funds that amounted to a record $1.1 bn, from its anchor investors on November 3, 2021, which was also dubbed as India's largest anchor round, prior to the IPO round. The anchor round of Paytm has been oversubscribed 10 times by 74 investors, that includes:
- Blackrock - INR 1,045 Cr
- CPPIB - INR 938 Cr
- Birla MF - INR 555 Cr
- GIC - INR 533 Cr
Out of Paytm's 74 investors, 21 of them had bids greater than Rs 100 crores, as per the reports on November 3, 2021.
Paytm will end its IPO round today, November 10, 2021, where the company received subscriptions close to 48% on Day 2 and is expected to close its IPO with a subscription over 56% on Day 3. However, the company has not yet witnessed significant demand from institutional and non-institutional investors.
Though Paytm witnessed a humongous and successful IPO round, the company's shares started to plummet as soon as the stocks were opened for trading in NSE. The Paytm shares opened at Rs 1,950, which was a 9.3% decline from its issue price at Rs 2,150. The company saw extended losses throughout the day today and reached a record low of 28% at Rs 1,560, as per the reports of November 18, 2021, thus far. The second day of trading saw a further decline in its share prices, which are currently trading below the Rs 1,300 mark and have hit an all-time low of INR 1,283 per share.
Paytm finally saw a rise of its share prices by 9% after 2 trading days of decline, where the share prices had nearly fallen by 37%. The market capitalization of Paytm also increased to INR 96,398.29 crore. The second day of the rise of Paytm parent's share prices on November 24, 2021, has seen a recovery of 29% with the market capitalization of the company, which again crossed the 1 lakh crore mark.
Paytm - Business and Revenue Model
The business model of Paytm includes marketplace and payments bank business model. The revenue sources for the company are divided into several categories such as Marketplace (Paytm Mall), Recharge Services, Bill Payments, Payment Solutions, Paytm Wallet, Paytm Bank, and Digital Gold for digital gold investment.
Revenue from Marketplace includes fees and commissions from sellers in different categories. Paytm charges commissions from mobile operators for revenue through recharge services. Paytm Wallet is used for almost every digital transaction. The more we use its Wallet, the more Paytm earns from it.
Paytm launched "Wealth Basket," which is designed to work like wealth and advisory marketplace on the Paytm Money platform, a subsidiary wholly owned by Paytm. Wealth Basket is designed to offer curated advisory products and services for retail investors.
Through this new launch of wealth advisory services, Paytm aims to be the new super app for users to invest and grow their wealth wisely. To materialize this plan Paytm has already partnered WealthDesk, an investment tech startup. However, experts are of the opinion that Paytm is entering into a market that already seems quite saturated, having 400+ investment tech startups. The same market is also expected to reach a valuation of $14.5 Bn by 2025 surging at a CAGR of 22.4%, as per the reports dated September 9, 2021.
Swiss RE is looking to join the board of Paytm's insurance business. The Switzerland-based reinsurance and the insurance giant is further eyeing to acquire 20-25% stakes in the venture, starting with a capital commitment of around $100 mn, as of the reports dated October 5, 2021.
This association will aim to formalize the insurance business of Paytm. The Indian digital payments app and merchant aggregator platform lack expertise in insurance, which Swiss RE will readily provide, thereby making the deal worth it!
Paytm - Value Proposition
The recharging business of Paytm is one of its most prominent propositions, which was the initial service proposition of the company. The company then went on to diversify its services by further producing newer services with the help of its Paytm Wallet, E-commerce vertical, the introduction of Digital Gold, and more.
Paytm creates value for the merchants:
Paytm creates value for the companies by offering them an array of digital payment methods, both in stores and online. Furthermore, it also considers the other traditional methods like debit and credit cards, including the new-age innovations like QR codes, email links, text messages, and the digital wallet service from Paytm as well as its competitor services such as United Payments Interface (UPI).
The Paytm business also supplies the hardware that is required for physical in-store purchases. Besides, the payment services of Paytm are also integrated with its Smart Retail platform, a solutions-based business model that is built to offer additional value for the retailers that helps them manage and optimize payments and other important features like the analytics, inventory, and customer engagement under one system.
Paytm creates value for the individuals:
In comparison to the countries of the West, the Indian people were not quite used to card payment. Transactions in India (around 95% of it), mostly relied on cash payments, as per the reports published in 2016. This is why Paytm was readily appreciated by the users who wanted to go cashless or digital, without going through all the hassles of creating a bank account.
Paytm - Partnerships
- December 3, 2021 - Paytm partnered with PMS Bazaar with a view to helping manage the portfolio of HNIs, who have a minimum investment folio of Rs 50 lakhs.
- September 27, 2021 - Paytm brings real-time international remittances into the Paytm mobile wallet by partnering with Ria Money Transfer.
- August 23, 2021 - Paytm collaborates with HDFC bank to provide solutions across payment gateway, POS machines, and other credit products.
- July 19, 2021 - Paytm partnered with IndusInd Bank to enable payments from the fixed deposit accounts held by the users of the latter.
- April 19, 2021 - Paytm saw a partnership with the Life Insurance Corporation of India to help facilitate digital payments.
- February 26, 2021 - Paytm and Ola partnered with IndusInd Bank and applied to RBI for the NUE license.
- August 23, 2019 - BCCI partners with Paytm and awards the company its title sponsorship rights for BCCI International and Domestic seasons between 2019 and 2023.
- Paytm was the associate sponsor of the Sony TV network, which was awarded the telecast rights of IPL
- Paytm was also announced as the official partner of Mumbai Indians.
Paytm - Acquisitions
Paytm has acquired 100% stakes in CreditMate, a Mumbai-based digital lending startup on October 3, 2021. Founded by Jonathan Bill, Ashish Doshi, Aditya Singh, and Swati Lad in 2019, CreditMate was developed as a collections platform to help the lenders collect their overdue from the borrowers. Paytm has added one more company to its list of acquisitions, which is currently 12 companies strong.
| Acquired | Date | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CreditMate | October 3, 2021 | - |
| Balance | August 9, 2018 | - |
| NightStay | July 3, 2018 | $20 mn |
| Cube26 | June 19, 2018 | - |
| TicketNew | May 23, 2018 | $40 mn |
| Nearbuy | November 13, 2017 | - |
| Little | November 13, 2017 | - |
| Insider.in | June 20, 2017 | $4.71 mn |
| Shopsity | November 11, 2016 | - |
| Edukart | September 26, 2016 | - |
| Shifu | January 4, 2016 | $8 mn |
Paytm announced that it has allotted around 10,11,582 equity shares worth Rs 189 crores to 166 of its former employees and current employees who had successfully submitted their applications to exercise the options vested to them under ESOP Scheme 2008 and ESOP Scheme 2009.
Paytm has declared that the last date of converting the ESOPs to shares for their employees (Key Management Personnel) is September 22, 2021, and that for the "Designated Persons" is September 27, 2021. The country's leading merchant aggregators and digital payments platform have recently increased their ESOP pool to 61 mn, which was 24 mn earlier, and more than 200 employees have already got their ESOP's converted to shares.
Furthermore, it has also been reported that the Paytm Founder and CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma is also drawing a considerable amount of new stock options in One97 Communications and this will increase his stakes in the parent company by 2-3%. However, the fact that whether Sharma will convert the ESOPs into shares and monetize them, still remains undecided. Sharma currently holds around 15% of the stakes in One97 Communications, as of September 24, 2021, and is planning to sell a part of his holding.
Paytm - Competitors
The top competitors of Paytm are:
Paytm proves to be the best in its field with its advanced technologies and strategic business models.
Paytm - Future Plans
The three main focus areas of the company are financial services, e-commerce, and payments. Paytm plans to invest Rs 10,000 Crore ($1.4 B) over the next three years. The investment will mainly focus on expanding its financial services. Paytm aimed to reach 100 million users in the T20 league and is planning to invest Rs 300 Crore in branding and marketing.
FAQs
Who is the current owner of Paytm?
Paytm is owned by the Indian company One97 Communications Ltd.
Is Paytm a Chinese company?
Paytm is a Indian company, but one of its major investor is Ant Financial, which is a Chinese major investor.
Why was Paytm banned?
Paytm was banned from Play Store for allegedly violating its gambling policies.
Is Paytm for business free?
Yes, there are no charges for setting up your Paytm for Business account.
What is the Paytm CEO name?
The name of the Paytm CEO is Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who has been the founder CEO of the company since it was founded back in 2010.
How many employees work in Paytm?
There are more than 10,000 employees in Paytm.
Is Paytm an Indian Company?
Paytm is an Indian fintech company that specializes in digital payments and ecommerce and comes with the facility of digital wallets.
Paytm operates in how many countries?
Paytm currently operates in India, where the Paytm payments bank was founded, and in two other countries namely Canada and Japan, as of now.
Which country made or who developed Paytm app?
Paytm is developed in India, the development of Paytm and its processes happens internally. Therefore, even the Paytm app and numerous other things associated with the brand and its functioning are developed internally by the brand itself.
Is Paytm profitable?
Paytm has made considerable losses over the years. The digital payments platform has lost around Rs 17 billion last year on revenues of Rs 31.86 billion. However, Paytm CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma mentioned, "We could very well break even this year, we will start making money," speaking on Reuters Next conference 2021, as reported on January 2021.
Author: Himaya Presthitha
Source : https://startuptalky.com/paytm-success-story/
Date : 2021-12-03T06:31:00.000Z