BS BFSI Insight Summit 2022: Fireside chat with Paytm CEO Vijay Sharma

Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the Chairman, Managing Director and CEO of One97 Communications and its consumer brand, Paytm.

The son of a school teacher, he enrolled in the Delhi College of Engineering (now Delhi Technological Institute) and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Sharma founded One97 Communications in 2000 and subsequently Paytm a decade later in 2010.

In November 2021, Paytm went public, raising $2.5 billion at a valuation of $19 billion.
 

Sharma has also created Paytm Mall, an e-commerce business and the Paytm Payments Bank. Entrepreneurship is not just about building one’s own business but also nurturing and supporting the ecosystem.

He has in his personal capacity made over 52 investments, the latest being the D2C footwear brand Yoho.
 

Time magazine listed Sharma among the top 100 most influential people in 2017, and he was ranked 62nd in the Forbes list of richest people in India in 2020.

Sharma has gone on to inspire a generation of entrepreneurs in the country and also instilled the belief in aspiring entrepreneurs that everything can be achieved through determination and hard work.