Paytm (acronym for "pay through mobile") is an Indian digital payments and

financial services Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, ...

company, based in

Noida Noida, short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, is a planned city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Noida is a satellite city of Delhi and is a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) o ...

. It was founded in 2010 by Vijay Shekhar Sharma under

One97 Communications One97 Communications (OCL) is the parent entity of leading Indian mobile payments and financial services company Paytm , headquartered in Noida, India. It was founded in 2000 by Vijay Shekhar Sharma. In July 2021, the company filed the offer do ...

. The company offers

mobile payment A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of ...

services to consumers and enables merchants to receive payments through its

QR code A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about t ...

point of sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...

and online

payment gateway A payment gateway is a merchant service provided by an e-commerce application service provider that authorizes credit card or direct payments processing for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar. The ...

offerings. In partnership with financial institutions, Paytm offers financial services such as

microloans :''This article is specific to small loans, often provided in a pooled manner. For direct payments to individuals for specific projects, see Micropatronage. For financial services to the poor, see Microfinance. For small payments, see Micropaym ...

and

buy now, pay later Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is a type of short-term financing that allows consumers to make purchases and pay for them at a future date. BNPL is generally structured like an installment plan money lending process that involves consumers, financiers, ...

to its consumers and merchants. Apart from bill payments and money transfer, the company also provides ticketing services,

retail brokerage A broker is a person or firm who arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither role should be conf ...

products and

online game An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, and s ...

s. Paytm's parent company,

, got listed on the Indian stock exchanges on 18 November 2021 after an initial public offering, which was the largest in India at the time. For the fiscal year 2021–22, Paytm's gross merchandise value (GMV) was reported to be .

History

Paytm was founded on August 2010 with an initial investment of by founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma in

, India. It started off as a prepaid mobile and DTH recharge platform, and has expanded to a leading digital payments and financial services company , with a diverse range of offerings spanning from partner-based lending to offline devices. In 2014, the company launched the Paytm Wallet which stirred the digital payments revolution in the country. Paytm launched BHIM UPI and also became India's first payment app to cross over 10 crore app downloads in 2017. In 2018, the company launched the 'Paytm for Business' app for merchants, allowing them to accept money through Paytm Wallet, UPI and card payments directly into their bank accounts at 0% charge. Paytm started distributing lending products on its platform in partnership with marquee lenders in 2018, starting off with Paytm Postpaid (Buy now pay later) and later expanding to instant personal loans and merchant/business loans. In March 2019, the firm launched a subscription based loyalty program called Paytm First , and later that year, it partnered with Citibank to launch Paytm First credit card In July 2021, Paytm's parent company One97 Communications filed a draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India to launch its initial public offering (IPO). It launched its IPO in November 2021, raising ₹18,300 crore (US$2.5 billion) at a valuation of close to US$19 billion. At that time, it was the largest ever IPO in India.

Funding and shareholding

Post-IPO shareholding (as of June 2022):

Investments and acquisitions

In 2013, Paytm acquired Plustxt for under $2 million. Plustxt was started by IT graduates Pratyush Prasanna, Parag Arora, Lokesh Chauhan and Lohit V that allowed fast text messaging in any Indian language. Paytm invested $5 million in

auto-rickshaw An auto rickshaw is a motorized version of the pulled rickshaw or cycle rickshaw. Most have three wheels and do not tilt. They are known by many terms in various countries including auto, auto rickshaw, baby taxi, mototaxi, pigeon, jonnybee, bajaj ...

aggregator and hyperlocal delivery firm Jugnoo in 2015. It also acquired Delhi-based consumer behaviour prediction platform Shifu and local services startup Near.in. In 2016, it invested in logistics startups LogiNext and XpressBees. Healthcare startup QorQL, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to assist medical care, received investment from Paytm in April 2017 In July 2017, it acquired a majority stake in online ticketing and events platform Insider.in, backed by event management company Only Much Louder (OML) and mobile loyalty startup MobiQuest. It also acquired Little and nearbuy.com during 2017. an India-based, hyper-local eCommerce company.In December 2017, nearbuy.com merged with Little App, while raising fresh capital from Paytm. As part of the deal, the competitor companies would merge under the leadership of co-founder and CEO Ankur Warikoo, while Paytm would acquire majority ownership of the merged entity. The company acquired the startup Cube26 in January 2018 and hotel booking platform NightStay in 2019. Paytm board has approved a resolution which would allot 47,042 equity shares to 60 employees under its ESOP Scheme 2008 and ESOP Scheme 2019. In October 2021, Paytm acquired digital lending company CreditMate.

International expansion

Japan

Paytm established a joint venture with SoftBank and

Yahoo Japan is a Japanese internet company originally formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! (later divested by Verizon into Altaba) and the Japanese company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Kioi Tower in the Tokyo Garden Ter ...

, called PayPay Corporation, to offer services in the Japanese market. Paytm launched the PayPay app, a QR-based payment settlement service, in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

on 22 October 2018.

Canada

Paytm Labs Inc. was established in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

in 2014 as a

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

division. It recently launched a fraud risk management platform called Pi for fintechs and digital marketplaces where transaction value is high.

Paytm Insider

Paytm Insider is a mobile app that helps to book tickets for Cricket matches, live entertainment shows and sports games online.

Controversies

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

-based

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

filed a case against Paytm in the Indian trademark office for using a logo with a similar colour combination to its own on 18 November 2016. In May 2018, the Indian investigative news agency Cobrapost released a video of an undercover reporter meeting with Paytm's vice president, Ajay Shekhar Sharma who is the brother of Vijay Shekhar Sharma. During the meeting, he reportedly said the company had provided the

Indian Government The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

with the personal data of Paytm users in the Indian state of

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

, violating user's privacy and policies. Later,

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ke ...

reported that, Sharma has close ties with India's ruling party

Bhartiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...

. Meanwhile, in response, the company tweeted that, it had never shared user's data with third parties, denied the contents in the video, and stated that it had never received requests from law enforcement on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Paytm also stated that any person claiming otherwise "is not aware of the policy and is not authorised to speak on behalf of the company". Paytm has alleged that the Indian telecom companies are not blocking numbers used for

phishing Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent (e.g., spoofed, fake, or otherwise deceptive) message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious softwa ...

activities and sued them for ₹100 crores in the Delhi High Court On 18 September 2020, the firm's official app was briefly unlisted from the

Google Play Store Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating syst ...

allegedly due to violations of the Play Store's gambling policy. The company claimed that Google did not offer any prior warning or give the company an opportunity to explain its views on the contentious 'cashback' offers while claiming that Google's own payments app Google Pay offered similar 'cashback' offers and suffered no repercussions.

Charity

During the

COVID-19 pandemic in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest n ...

, Paytm contributed 10 to every single user who pays to the

PM CARES fund The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) was created on 27 March 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Although it is named for the Prime Minister of India, and uses the State Em ...

via their app; within ten days they had collected 100 crores in their app. Their 1,200 employees contributed 15 days or even a few months of their salaries to the fund. Through their platform, Paytm made 21,000 oxygen concentrators available for people in need, and donated oxygen plants in 13 worst-hit cities to help hospitals get oxygen. In August 2022, Paytm Foundation partnered with United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to set up the Air Quality Action Forum (AQAF) to curb air pollution in India.

Awards and recognition

* Paytm won the award for Best UPI App, Most Design User-friendly Fintech App and the Most Innovative Use of Technology at Global Fintech Fest 2022 * The Divide: A Social Experiment by Paytm won at the ET Brand Equity Spott Awards 2022 under Social Awareness through Short film/Videos category * Paytm won the Best Unicorn title at BW Businessworld Unicorn Summit and Awards 2022 * At the Rural and Urban Development Summit and Awards 2022 presented by the Minister of State for Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, Paytm won the awards for Most Trusted Brand of the Year and Paytm Soundbox won the award for Best IoT Solution of the Year. * Paytm was recognised as the 'Employer of the Future' by Fortune India magazine * It won the IAMAI's India Digital Award 2021 for Best FinTech Growth Story by the Internet and Mobile Association of India. * It was conferred Outstanding Startup of the Year Award at ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' Leadership Awards 2016. * Paytm was awarded the FT Future of Fintech Awards by the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' in 2016. * Paytm was announced as the finalist of the Meffys Awards 2015 under the mobile money category. * It won the MMA Smarties Award Gold for Mobile App & Silver for mCommerce by the Mobile Marketing Association in 2014.

References

External links

Official website
{{SoftBank Indian companies established in 2010 Financial services companies established in 2010 Internet properties established in 2010 2010 establishments in Uttar Pradesh Companies based in Noida E-commerce in India Mobile payments in India Indian brands Online payments Payment service providers Softbank portfolio companies Super-apps Payments banks 2021 initial public offerings Mobile payments Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Retail companies established in 2010 Online retailers of India