Paytm crosses 1.2 bn monthly transactions, maintains leadership position

Financial services firm sees 15% month-on-month growth in offline merchant payments

Financial services platform Paytm has said it has breached 1.2-billion monthly transactions, led by huge growth in its offline payment and financial services. 

The Paytm platform allows all payment methods, including wallets, Unified Payments Interface, cards, and netbanking. The company also said it was seeing 15 per cent month-on-month growth in offline merchant payments. 

“We have been promoting digital payment methods, giving multiple choices to consumers who have helped us in consolidating our leadership position. In fact, a large percentage of our users, who started their digital journey with Paytm, has now adopted and embraced our financial services,” said Narendra Yadav, vice-president, Paytm.

He added that street hawkers and small shopkeepers had been embracing Paytm’s Soundbox. This has helped build trust in digital payments. 

The technology was showcased during a virtual exchange between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a fruit vendor in Agra in October last year.

Soundbox involves an Internet of Things-enabled device. It is a voice-activated point-of-sale (PoS) machine. It works on a subscriber identity module card embedded in the device and is available to a merchant at a one-time deposit, followed by a nominal monthly charge thereafter. 

Paytm has been introducing newer products, designed especially for offline payments for its huge merchant base, including Paytm All-In-One QR (quick response), Paytm All-In-One Android PoS, Soundbox, and Paytm for Business application for over 17-million merchants who have embraced and endorsed its services. The company said in a statement it has created a robust technology infrastructure across 99-per cent pincodes. It has been the main driving force behind building and expanding digital villages and now empowers over 600,000 villages in India with digital payments. It has trained over 2 million merchants in these villages, helping in the proliferation of online transactions.

Paytm has over 150-million monthly active users; a majority of its account holders have adopted banking, lending, insurance, wealth, and other financial services on the platform. The firm said over 50 per cent of its merchant partners hold an account in a Paytm Payments Bank. Its discount brokering unit Paytm Money has also seen uptick in investment products, including mutual funds, stocks, initial public offerings, futures & options, exchange-traded funds, and digital gold. 

Paytm Postpaid, which provides micro-credit, has already achieved over 7 million users within six months of its launch, said the firm.

Paytm’s initiatives for offline businesses have helped take the products offered by the firm to smaller towns, including Panipat, Kanpur, Nashik, Madurai, Baroda, Mysuru, among others.