Paytm

Paytm
Type of business Private
Type of site
 E-commerce
Founded 2010
Headquarters Noida, Uttar Pradesh,India
Area served India, Canada
Founder(s) Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Key people Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Founder & CEO)
Industry Internet
Products
  • Paytm Mall
  • Paytm Payment Bank
Services Online shopping, payment systems, digital wallets
Revenue ₹814 crore (US$110 million) (FY 2017)[1]
Parent One97 Communications Ltd .
Website paytm.com

Paytm is an Indian e-commerce payment system and digital wallet company, based out of NOIDA SEZ, India.

Paytm is available in 10 Indian languages and offers online use-cases like mobile recharges, utility bill payments, travel, movies, and events bookings as well as in-store payments at grocery stores, fruits and vegetable shops, restaurants, parking, tolls, pharmacies and education institutions with the Paytm QR code.[2] California based PayPal had filed a case against Paytm in the Indian trademark office for using a logo similar to its own on 18 November 2016.[3] As of January 2018, Paytm is valued at $10 billion.[4]

As per the company, over 7 million merchants across India use this QR code to accept payments directly into their bank account at 4% fee.[5] The company also uses advertisements and paid promotional content to generate revenues.

History

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Paytm was founded in August 2010 with an initial investment of $2 million by its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma in NOIDA, a region adjacent to India's capital New Delhi. It started off as a prepaid mobile and DTH recharge platform, and later added data card, postpaid mobile and landline bill payments in 2013.[6]

By January 2014, the company launched the Paytm Wallet, and the Indian Railways and Uber added it as a payment option.[7] It launched into mobile commerce with online deals and bus ticketing. In 2015, it unveiled more use-cases like education fees, metro recharges, electricity, gas, and water bill payments. It also started powering the payment gateway for Indian Railways.[8]

In 2016, Paytm launched movies, events and amusement parks ticketing[9] as well as flight ticket bookings and Paytm QR.[10] Later that year, it launched rail bookings[11] and gift cards.

Paytm's registered user base grew from 11.8 million in August 2014 to 104 million in August 2015. Its travel business crossed $500 million in annualised GMV run rate, while booking 2 million tickets per month.[12]

In 2017, Paytm became India's first payment app to cross over 100 million app downloads.[13] The same year, it launched Paytm Gold,[14] a product that allowed users to buy as little as ₹1 of pure gold online. It also launched the Paytm Payments Bank[15][16] and ‘Inbox’, a messaging platform with in-chat payments among other products.[17] By 2018, it started allowing merchants to accept Paytm, UPI and Card payments directly into their bank accounts at 0% charge.[18][19] It also launched the ‘Paytm for Business’ app, allowing merchants to track their payments and day-to-day settlements instantly.[20] This led its merchant base to grow to more than 7 million by March 2018.

The company launched two new wealth management products - Paytm Gold Savings Plan and Gold Gifting to simplify long-term savings.[21][22] It launched into gaming and investments, partnering with AGTech to launch a mobile games platform Gamepind,[23] and setting up Paytm Money with an investment of Rs.9 Crores[24][25] to bring investment and wealth management products for the Indians.[26]

Funding

In 2007, Paytm’s parent One97 Communications Ltd. got its first institutional investor, venture capital firm SAIF Partners.

In March 2015, Paytm received its funding from Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group based in Hangzhou, China , after Ant Financial Services Group, an Alibaba Group affiliate, took 25% stake in One97 as part of a strategic agreement.[27] Soon after, it received backing from Ratan Tata, the MD of Tata sons.[28]

It subsequently launched a ‘Paytm for Business’ app in 10 regional languages of India, allowing these merchants to track their payments and day-to-day settlements conveniently.[20] In August 2015, the Reserve Bank of India granted 'in-principle' approval for Payments Bank to Paytm.[29] In 2017, the company launched the Paytm Payments Bank with the aim to bring banking and financial services access to half-a-billion un-served and under-served Indians.[15]

The same year, Paytm launched an app for Canadian mobile phone, cable, Internet, electricity and water bill payments.[30] In 2018, it set up Paytm Money to build investment and wealth management offerings for its users. This business was expected to bring direct mutual funds and money-market funds to the Indian masses.[24][31] In August 2016, Paytm raised funding from Mountain Capital, one of Taiwan-based MediaTek's investment funds at a valuation of over $5 billion.[32]

In May 2017, Paytm received its biggest round of funding by a single investor – SoftBank which also has a large stake in Alibaba, thus bringing the company’s valuation to an estimated $10 billion.[33] In August 2018, Berkshire Hathaway invested $356 million for 3%- 4% stake in Paytm, [34][35] although Berkshire Hathaway confirmed that Warren Buffett was not involved in the transaction. [36]

Investments and acquisitions

In 2013, Paytm acquired Plustxt for around $2 million. Plustxt was started by IIT Graduates Pratyush Prasanna, Parag Arora, Lokesh Chauhan and Lohit V that allowed fast texting messaging in any Indian Language.[37]

In 2015, Paytm invested $5 million in auto-rickshaw aggregator and hyperlocal delivery firm Jugnoo.[38] The funds were meant to enable Jugnoo to scale up its operations across the country, and improve its driver efficiency. It also acquired Delhi-based consumer behaviour prediction platform Shifu[39] and local services startup Near.in.[40]

In 2016, Paytm invested in logistics startups LogiNext and XpressBees.[41]

In April 2017, Paytm invested in healthcare startup QorQL[42] which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to help doctors improve their productivity and quality of care, and enable patients to manage their health better. In July 2017, it acquired a majority stake in online ticketing and events platform Insider.in,[43] backed by event management company Only Much Louder (OML) and mobile loyalty startup MobiQuest. The same year, Paytm acquired Little & Nearbuy, and merged both.[44]

In June 2018 the company acquired the startup Cube26.[45]

Marketing

In July 2015, One97 Communications, the firm that owns the brand Paytm, acquired the title sponsorship rights for India's domestic and international cricket matches at home for a period of four years starting in August 2015.[46] The rights include sponsor branding of series with the title sponsor logo, designation as the title sponsor of the series, visibility at the stadium, and broadcast sponsorship rights. This also includes all BCCI domestic (Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy etc.) matches in India.

Previously, Paytm had acquired sponsorship rights during the 8th season of Indian Premier League. It has also served as an associate sponsor on Sony TV network (which has the telecast rights for IPL) and was the official partner of the IPL team Mumbai Indians. In March 2018, Paytm became the Umpire Partner of the IPL for five years.[47]

Paytm Payments Bank

In August 2015, Paytm received a license from Reserve Bank of India to launch a payments bank.[29] The Paytm Payments Bank is a separate entity in which founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma will hold 51% share, One97 Communications holds 39% and 10% will be held by a subsidiary of One97 and Sharma. The bank was officially inaugurated in November 2017 by the Indian Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley.[15] The inauguration ceremony featured prominent banking personalities including former RBI Executive Director PV Bhaskar, Saama Capital Director Ash Lilani and former Shriram Group Director GS Sundarajan. Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Renu Satti(resigned) (CEO – Paytm Payments Bank) are the other directors of Paytm Payments Bank.

It is set to launch over 100,000 banking outlets across India by end of 2018.[48]

Paytm Mall

In February 2017, paytm launched its Paytm Mall app, which allows consumers to shop from 1.4 lakh registered sellers.[49]Paytm Mall raised a whopping $200 million from Alibaba Group and SAIF Partners in March, 2018.[50]

Automated Tax payments

Paytm has integrated functionality into its system, allowing for tax payments to be processed and then analysed by the NIC at eTaal Government Service.

Awards and recognition

  • Outstanding Startup of the Year Award at Forbes Leadership Awards 2016[51]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Paytm revenue stood at Rs 814 crore in FY17
  2. ↑ "Paytm promotes SVP Kiran Vasireddy to the position of COO". The Economic Times. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  3. ↑ "PayPal filed case against Paytm on 18 November 2016".
  4. ↑ "Paytm valuation pegged at $10 billion after secondary share sale", Live Mint, January 2018
  5. ↑ Bhakta, Pratik (2018-03-20). "Paytm transactions reportedly grew four-fold to $20 billion in February". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  6. ↑ "The inspiring journey of Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma". Paytm Blog. 2017-03-11. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  7. ↑ "Paytm's big day: railway ticketing platform IRCTC adds Paytm wallet as a payment option". Techcircle. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  8. ↑ "Paytm is now powering IRCTC's Payment Gateway". The Financial Express. 2016-09-16. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  9. ↑ Reporter, B. S. (2016-03-22). "Paytm enters online movie ticketing". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  10. ↑ Sahay, Priyanka (2015-10-14). "Paytm launches QR code payment option for wallet app". livemint.com. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  11. ↑ "Now You Can Book Train Tickets Using Paytm". NDTV Gadgets360.com. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  12. ↑ Chaturvedi, Anumeha (2017-08-24). "Paytm bets on local travel boom, eyes 3-fold business growth". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  13. ↑ Staff (2017-12-27). "Paytm exceeds 100 million downloads on Google Play Store". BGR India. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  14. ↑ "Buy, sell gold instantly on Paytm". @businessline. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  15. 1 2 3 "Arun Jaitley launches Paytm Payments Bank". @businessline. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  16. ↑ "Paytm Payments Bank Officially Launched; CEO Outlines Growth Path". NDTV Gadgets360.com. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  17. ↑ "Paytm launches 'Inbox' messaging platform with ability to send or request money and share multimedia messages- Technology News, Firstpost". Tech2. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  18. ↑ Paytm (2017-12-04). "Now, existing & new Merchants can accept Paytm, UPI & Card payments directly into their Bank…". Paytm Blog. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  19. ↑ "Paytm QR now allows merchants to accept Paytm, UPI and Card payments directly into bank account at 0% charge | TMS News". TMS News. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  20. 1 2 www.ETtech.com. "Paytm launches business app on Android for its merchants - ETtech". ETtech.com. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  21. ↑ "Savings are now simpler — Introducing Gold Savings Plan & Gold Gifting". Paytm Blog. 2018-03-15. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  22. ↑ India, Press Trust of (2018-03-15). "Paytm launches two new services under wealth management offering". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  23. ↑ www.ETtech.com. "Paytm, AGTech launch mobile gaming platform Gamepind - ETtech". ETtech.com. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  24. 1 2 Choudhury, Karan (2018-03-13). "Paytm to launch mutual funds, insurance, banking services via payments bank". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  25. ↑ "We have set up Paytm Money to focus on Investment and Wealth Management". Paytm Blog. 2018-01-10. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  26. ↑ "Paytm Money gets Rs 9 crore from parent One97". TimesOfIndia.
  27. ↑ "Alibaba enters India's e-commerce space with 25% stake in Paytm owner One97". Paytm Blog. 2015-03-18. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  28. ↑ Vardhan, Jai (13 March 2015). "Paytm secures funding from Ratan Tata, plans to have 100M wallet users by year end". Your Story. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  29. 1 2 "Paytm Along With 10 Others Receive License From RBI To Set Up Payments Banks - Inc42 Media". Inc42 Media. 2015-08-19. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  30. ↑ Ganguly, Payal (2017-03-17). "Paytm launches its digital wallet play in Canada". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  31. ↑ "Paytm appoints Amit Sinha as COO of commerce biz". The Times of India. 12 June 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  32. ↑ ANI (2016-08-31). "Paytm receives investment from Mountain Capital". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  33. ↑ Chanchani, Madhav; Variyar, Mugdha (2017-05-19). "Paytm raises $1.4 billion from Softbank, valuation jumps to over $8 billion". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  34. ↑ Choudhury, Saheli Roy (2018-08-27). "Berkshire Hathaway buys a stake in India's largest digital payments company". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
  35. ↑ Hunnicutt, Trevor. "Berkshire Hathaway buys stake in India's Paytm". U.S. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
  36. ↑ Philipose, Mobis (2018-08-29). "Warren Buffett's Paytm bet is actually not that big a deal". LiveMint. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
  37. ↑ "One97 acquires cross-messaging platform Plustxt for under $2M". Techcircle. 2013-08-08. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  38. ↑ Poovanna, Sharan (2016-04-18). "Jugnoo raises $10 million in funding round led by Paytm". livemint.com. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  39. ↑ "Paytm Acquires Personal Assistant App Shifu To Improve Its Artificial Intelligence Tech – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  40. ↑ Gooptu, Biswarup (2015-12-07). "Paytm acquires Near.in to strengthen its presence in online-to-offline space". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  41. ↑ "Paytm to replicate Alibaba's logistics strategy with LogiNext". @businessline. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  42. ↑ "Paytm Backs AI And Big Data Driven Healthtech Startup QorQL - Inc42 Media". Inc42 Media. 2017-04-07. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  43. ↑ www.ETtech.com. "Paytm acquires majority stake in online ticketing platform Insider.in for around Rs 35 cr - ETtech". ETtech.com. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  44. ↑ "Nearbuy and Little merge to create India's largest discovery and deals platform for local…". Paytm Blog. 2017-12-06. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  45. ↑ TNN (19 June 2018). "Paytm acquires Flipkart-backed startup Cube26". Times of India. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
  46. ↑ Malvania, Urvi (2015-07-31). "Paytm bags 4-yr BCCI title sponsorship for Rs 203 cr". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  47. ↑ "BCCI Announces Paytm as Official Umpire Partner for IPL". News18. 2018-03-12. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  48. ↑ "Paytm Payments Bank to open 100,000 Paytm Ka ATM outlets, set to invest Rs 3,000 cr". The Financial Express. 2017-12-05. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  49. ↑ "Paytm crosses 200 million users; launches Paytm Mall app". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 2018-09-07.
  50. ↑ Tyagi, Chhavi (2017-08-10). "Hoping for a different outcome, Paytm Mall has a different strategy to do business". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2018-09-07.
  51. ↑ "Winners: Forbes India Leadership Awards 2016 | Forbes India". Forbes India. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
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