Vijay Shekhar Sharma (born 7 June 1978) is an Indian technology entrepreneur, and the founder and chief executive officer of

One97 Communications One97 Communications Ltd is an Indian multinational technology company, headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was founded in 2000 by Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Through its subsidiaries and businesses, the company offers digital payment an ...

and its consumer brand

Paytm Paytm (an acronym for "Pay Through Mobile") is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational Fintech, financial technology company, that specializes in digital wallet, digital payments and financial services, based in Noida, India. Paytm ...

. In January 2022, the

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several dat ...

-supported Universal Acceptance Steering Group appointed him as its in India. As of September 2022, he had a net worth of US$1.1 billion according to ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

''.

Early life and education

Vijay Shekhar Sharma was born in

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Koil) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the capital, New Delhi. ...

, Uttar Pradesh on 7 June 1978, the third of the four children of Sulom Prakash Sharma, a schoolteacher, and Asha Sharma, a homemaker. He did his schooling from Harduaganj, a small town near Aligarh. He enrolled in college at the age of 15 and graduated with a B.Tech degree from the Delhi College of Engineering (now Delhi Technological University) at 19 years old

Career

In 1997, while in college, he started the website indiasite.net, and sold it two years later for US$1 million. Three years later, in 2000, he started One97 Communications which offered mobile content including news, cricket scores, ringtones, jokes and exam results.

Limited is the parent company of

, a digital payments and financial services company that was launched by Sharma in 2010. In November 2021, Paytm went public raising $2.5 billion at a valuation of $19 billion, making it India's largest

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

at that time. Sharma is also an

angel investor An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible de ...

who has supported tech startups. Sharma joined the board of management at Netaji Subhas University of Technology in Delhi for three years. In 2024, Sharma stepped down from his role as part-time non-executive chairman and board member of

Paytm Payments Bank Paytm Payments Bank (PPBL) was an Indian payments bank, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Noida. In the same year, it received the license to run a payments bank from the Reserve Bank of India and was launched in November 2017. In 2021, the b ...

. This decision followed regulatory challenges encountered by the bank with the

Reserve Bank of India Reserve Bank of India, abbreviated as RBI, is the central bank of the Republic of India, and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system and Indian rupee, Indian currency. Owned by the Ministry of Finance (India), Min ...

Awards and recognition

* Won the Best Serial Entrepreneur Award at the Rural and Urban Development Summit and Awards 2022 presented by the Minister of State for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India. * Ranked the Youngest Indian Billionaire by Forbes magazine * In 2018, he was named the Entrepreneur of the Year by AIMA *

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

's 100 most influential people in 2017. * ET Entrepreneur of the Year, by

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. Owned by The Times Group, ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961 and it is sold in all major cities in India. As of 2012, it is the world's secon ...

in 2016 * Ranked by GQ in their listing of the 50 most influential young Indians of 2017. * In 2017, he became the Dataquest IT Man of the year. * Received an

Honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from Amity University, Gurgaon, in 2016 * Honored with the Yash Bharati, the highest state civilian award of the Government of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

in 2016. * Named as the Businessman of the Year at

GQ Men of the Year Awards ''GQ'' (short for ''Gentlemen's Quarterly'' and previously known as ''Apparel Arts'') is an international monthly men's magazine based in New York City and founded in 1931. The publication focuses on fashion, style, and culture for men, though ...

2016. * He was conferred with the NDTV Indian of the Year in 2016. * Awarded the Impact Person of the Year Award in 2016. * Named India's Hottest Business Leader under 40 by

in 2015. * In September 2015, he was named CEO of the Year by SABRE Award.

Personal life

He is married to Mridula Parashar Sharma and they have a child. He cites Alibaba's founder

Jack Ma Ma Yun (; born 10 September 1964), or more commonly referred as Jack Ma, is a Chinese businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of the Jack Ma Foundation, and co-founder of Alibaba Group and Yunfeng Capital. As of May 2025, Ma's ne ...

and

Masayoshi Son Masayoshi Son (, , born Masayoshi Yasumoto, ; August 11, 1957) is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist from Japan. A Zainichi Korean, he is the founder, representative director, corporate officer, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group (SBG ...

Softbank is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...

, as his inspirations. In February 2022, Sharma was arrested by Delhi police for hitting his car into the car of a police officer. He was later released on bail.

Other work

Sharma has been named as the UN Environment's 'Patron for Clean Air', where he helps to drive environmental action and awareness and advocate for the goals of United Nations Environment's global Breathe Life campaign.

References