This will catapult us into a very different league: Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Interview with Founder & CEO, Paytm

From very humble beginnings in a small Uttar Pradesh town, Vijay Shekhar Sharma has come a long way. Starting as a mobile value added services firm, his One97 Communications has forayed into digital payments, got Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba as an investor, expanded into mobile commerce and, on Wednesday, bagged a payment bank licence from the Reserve Bank (RBI). Soon after the announcement, he spoke to Surabhi Agarwal. Edited excerpts:

What does this mean for the company?

We always believed there was a larger customer lifecycle that we serve, starting from pay to buy to the sale. Now, the government has given us the opportunity to extend the business model to financial services. It’s a great opportunity and I believe we will do justice to it.

How do we visualise Paytm one year from now?

Think three-, four-line items of business and revenues — payments, commerce and financial services. So, a customer can deposit, you can potentially get your debit card, a bank cheque book and you can also get some other financial services which the (digital) wallet did not allow earlier -- for example you can withdraw money. It’s a three-step process of pay, buy, sale. Consumers who were earlier able to pay and buy with us will now be able to sell with us.

How will the existing business of Paytm be transformed?

We believe it will catapult us to a very different league and I am very happy that from being a payment player to a commerce player, we will now be a financial services player.

How will you disrupt traditional banking and financial services?

It is very evident that the financial industry has not often led with technology. We have seen many other industries getting far more efficient and we believe that with the technology play here, we will be able to bring scalable banking. We believe from the 100 million users we have, we will be 500 mn by 2020.

What opportunities and gaps would you bridge with technology?

The country has been split with haves and have nots -- those with bank accounts and others who don’t. The opportunity is to bring half a billion Indians who do not access financial services into the mainstream of the economy and Paytm feels very strongly about the opportunity. We are very proud that RBI has given us this opportunity.

How will you fund the expansion?

We already have money in our bank account; we are well capitalised. We do not require additional funds to invest in this. Inshallah, we will be able to do good with the money we have.

What will be the reaction of existing investors such as Alibaba to the news?

They will be very thrilled, without doubt.