#Collapse and rewind comic code

It’s revealed more data on users, revenue streams and loan disbursals, treating investors on par with board members - and so far, the numbers have been beating internal expectations, Sharma said. In both payments and lending, Paytm has started to publish more metrics. While taking on traditional banks is a challenge, Paytm is convinced it’ll win over users in what is currently a credit-starved market. To expand Paytm’s reach, Sharma has steadily ramped up its lending business. Vijay Sharma during the listing ceremony last November. “I want to make Paytm the most relevant payments company of our times,” he said, dressed in a checked shirt and blue jeans, seated in a conference room framed against a distant backdrop of high rises.

#Collapse and rewind comic code

Another product generates a unique QR code for each transaction and lets shoppers pay swiftly through Paytm’s smartphone application as well as other apps - a model already prevalent in China. Its Sound Box, for instance, is a $2-a-month subscription which instantly reconciles payments and announces a successful purchase via a speaker at the merchant’s counter. While that’s attracted droves of contenders like Alphabet Inc.’s Google Pay, Inc.’s Amazon Pay and Walmart Inc.’s PhonePe, Sharma is confident Paytm’s products - some modeled on success cases in other markets - will help it retain its leadership position. India’s payments market differs from that of more developed countries, as it bypassed card-based systems popular in regions such as Europe and the US to jump directly from cash to mobile device payments. He said its work can be simplified to two short lines: Paytm is in the business of payments, and it sells loans. One step toward regaining trust is a demystifying of Paytm’s revenue structure, said the founder, who is also the company’s chief executive officer. And he’ll have his hands full: Paytm’s operating losses widened over the past year to about $350 million, competition is intensifying and investors have lambasted the lack of clarity in the company’s business model. To make matters worse, the war in Ukraine and fears of a global recession further clouded the picture for startups worldwide in 2022.ĭescribing his approach as a rewind-and-reset, Sharma is on a mission to win back investors. Young firms - dozens of which had hit unicorn status as capital flowed to everything from online retail to digital learning in the country of 1.4 billion - suddenly saw their fundraising plans grind to a halt. Paytm’s stock-price collapse exacerbated a crisis for India’s startups, sending valuations plummeting as investors began to grow cautious about their earnings potential. “For me, the public listing was a sort of graduation, and taking Paytm to break-even and to profits gives me a clarity of purpose.” “We’re earnestly chasing the $1 billion goal,” he said during an hours-long conversation last week at Paytm’s new chrome-and-glass headquarters in Noida, outside New Delhi, in a vast green expanse filled with wandering cattle. The brand, known formally as One97 Communications Ltd., is also shifting its attention from growth toward profitability, Sharma said in his first extensive interview following the high-profile public debut in November. The digital-payments provider is set to become India’s first internet company to hit $1 billion in annual revenue by the end of this fiscal year in March, said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, 44. Now its founder promises a sharpened focus on financial performance to convince investors of the money-losing company’s prospects. Paytm was the poster boy for India’s tech startups, only to lose two-thirds of its value since its IPO and become a symbol of the industry’s crash. Vijay Sharma founded Paytm parent One97 Communications over two decades ago.