Paytm swears by India digital play, lines up Rs 20,000 crore

Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said its platform processes about 250 crore transactions annually worth of Rs 80,000 crore

Paytm, which has high-profile investors like SoftBank and Alibaba, has drawn up a massive investment plan of Rs 20,000 crore as the group expands its play into the digital payments, financial services and e-commerce space in the country.

"In the last 2 years and the next three years, we would have invested Rs 18,000-20,000 crore. I don't want to talk about profitability right now because we are still in an investment phase," Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma told reporters here.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the official launch of Paytm Payments Bank operations.

Paytm, which offers a mobile wallet, recharge, bill payment services, e-commerce (Paytm Mall) and ticketing services, saw a massive growth in its business after the government's demonetisation drive in November last year. Paytm has 28 crore registered users, of which 18 million use Paytm wallet service.

Sharma said its platform processes about 250 crore transactions annually worth of Rs 80,000 crore.

"We expect this to grow to Rs 1 lakh crore by the end of the fiscal. The number of merchants on our platform will also touch 60 lakh in a few months," he added.

The company, Sharma said, will invest Rs 5,000 crore over the next two years in its financial and payments services and Rs 1,700 crore have already been pumped in this year.

"Paytm is a contribution positive business. We are not profitable yet because we are investing in marketing, cloud and customer acquisition," he said.

He added that for the Payments Bank operations, the aim is to break even in the next two years.