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.
In 2017, Paytm became India's first payment app to cross over 100 million app downloads. The same year, it
launched Paytm Gold, a product that allowed users to buy as little as ₹1 of pure gold online. It also launched
the Paytm Payments Bank and ‘Inbox’, a messaging platform with in-chat payments among other
products. By 2018, it started allowing merchants to accept Paytm, UPI and Card payments directly into their
bank accounts at 0% charge. It also launched the ‘Paytm for Business’ app, allowing merchants to track their
payments and day-to-day settlements instantly. 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. It launched into gaming and investments, partnering with AGTech to launch a
mobile games platform Gamepind, and setting up Paytm Money with an investment of ₹9 Crores to bring
investment and wealth management products for the Indians.
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. Soon after, it received backing from Ratan Tata, the MD of Tata sons.
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. In August 2015, the Reserve Bank
of India granted 'in-principle' approval for Payments Bank to Paytm. 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.
The same year, Paytm launched an app for Canadian mobile phone, cable, Internet, electricity and water bill
payments. 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. In
August 2016, Paytm raised funding from Mountain Capital, one of Taiwan-based MediaTek's investment
funds at a valuation of over $5 billion.
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. In August
2018, Berkshire Hathaway invested $356 million for 3%- 4% stake in Paytm, although Berkshire Hathaway
confirmed that Warren Buffettwas not involved in the transaction.
MAJOR SOURCE OF REVENUE
Paytm’s revenues are generated from multiple sources. This includes:
Interest (ranging 4-6%) received from escrow account maintained in a nationalised bank,
Advertisements on its websites,
Commission from utility payments and recharges,
Commission of 1% for transferring money from merchant e-wallets to their bank accounts (Gupta
2016).
The total revenue during 2015-16 was 3360 million which was higher than 2100 million in the
previous year. However in 2015-16 it showed a loss of 3370 million.