What explains Vijay Shekhar Sharma's optimism when other players have started to tread cautiously is Paytm's huge customer base: It has 120 million users and counting, says Nivedita Mookerji.
As Indians scrambled to exchange the banned notes for new currency, Paytm, Sharma's digital payments startup, went on a promotional spree, inviting Indians to start using Paytm's digital wallet to pay for everyday goods and services.
Online mutual fund (MF) investment platforms like Groww, Zerodha Coin and Paytm Money, which allow investments in direct MF schemes for free, will soon be able to charge their customers or the fund houses for executing transactions. "They can charge some money but commission-like structure won't be allowed," Madhavi Puri Buch, chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), said on Tuesday. At present, none of these online investment platforms generate any revenue through the MF sales.
Every customer, on opening a Payments Bank account, will get a cashback of Rs 250 as soon they bring deposits of Rs 25,000 in their bank account. The account will have zero balance requirement and every online transaction (such as IMPS, NEFT, RTGS) will be free of charge.
Hectic fundraising through IPOs will continue next week, with three firms -- One97 Communications, owner of Paytm; Sapphire Foods India, which operates KFC and Pizza Hut outlets; and Latent View Analytics -- are set to launch their initial share-sales to collectively mop up about Rs 21,000 crore. This comes after five companies successfully concluded their public offerings (IPOs) this week. Those five firms are - FSN E-Commerce Ventures, which runs online marketplace for beauty and wellness products Nykaa; Fino Payments Bank; Policybazaar parent entity PB Fintech; decorative aesthetics supplier SJS Enterprises; and microcrystalline cellulose maker Sigachi Industries.
Alibaba is playing a big role in helping to train the senior management of the upcoming Paytm Payment Bank
Sleep has been a casualty for Vijay Shekhar Sharma, whose wallet company Paytm has a user base of close to 150 million and is working 20 hours a day.
Paytm is just embarking on building a TaoBao like entity in India, it may want to address a challenge that the latter faced a few years after its launch.
Some of the fintechs that will get impacted include Cred, Paytm, Phonepe and Amazon Pay, among others.
It aims to grow gross merchandise value to Rs 19,000-25,500 crore.
Zomato is at 5, Swiggy at 9, Blinkit at 10.
Since Sanjay Malhotra took office as governor in December, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has adopted a more accommodative stance, which bodes well for banking and the economy as they navigate a growth slowdown, according to analysts.
Walmart-owned digital payments firm PhonePe has decided to halt its proposed acquisition of Goldman Sachs- and Xiaomi-backed ZestMoney, a Bengaluru-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform. The deal, which was poised to fetch anywhere between $150-200 million and $300 million, has hit a snag over lapses in due diligence, disagreements over valuation, sustainability of the business, and shareholding structure of ZestMoney, according to people familiar with the matter. The collapse of the deal is also being attributed to a slowdown in the financial technology (fintech) sector in the midst of a funding winter, difficult regulatory environment, and macroeconomic uncertainty, informed other sources.
Payments banks are expecting to get the rights to offer small-ticket loans sometime soon, according to an industry source familiar with the matter. The industry has been in talks with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for some time in seeking lending rights.
Various online platforms let you invest in direct mutual funds.
Paytm Travel claims to have a base of around 13 million customers, a threefold increase over the user base in FY17. While significant, it is but a fraction of Paytm's wallet user base of more than 300 million.
His investment in Paytm is in his personal capacity.
Joint venture to take on Amazon will be announced next week.
Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) raised Rs 8,315 crore from anchor investors on Monday, setting the stage for the country's biggest-ever maiden share sale. The Indian arm of the South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) allotted 42.4 million shares to 225 funds at Rs 1,960 apiece, the higher end of its price band. Among the investors receiving allotments were the Singapore government's sovereign wealth fund (GIC), New World Fund, and Fidelity.
The firm will invest over Rs 1,000 crore in marketing, cash backs and promotional spends
In August, RBI allowed 11 business houses to start a payments bank.
Kapoor and his associate entities owned 10.6 per cent in the bank at the end of June 2019.
Paytm e-commerce plans to add close to a billion products from across the globe to its platform before the festive season this year.
To take on Amazon, Paytm e-commerce plans to add close to a billion products from all across the globe to its shopping cart.
Food and grocery delivery major Zomato has pulled the plug on its plan to enter the lending business. Zomato Financial Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zomato, has withdrawn its application for a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), stating that the company does not have plans to pursue lending in the future. "There is no material impact on the revenue/operations of the company and this disclosure is being made voluntarily," the Gurgaon-based company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
Two years after his dismissive stance on India's AI potential raised eyebrows here, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Wednesday gave a ringing endorsement to Artificial Intelligence momentum in the country -- and billed India as an important market not just for the new-age technology itself but for the ChatGPT creator as well. In New Delhi on Wednesday, Altman -- while sharing dais with Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw -- said India is the second biggest market for the company and that Open AI had tripled its users here in the last year.
With options ranging from recharging mobile, data card, DTH, toll card, to making bill payments for mobile, data card, landline and electricity, besides buying bus tickets for anywhere within the country, this free app is ideal for those on the go.
The Paytm Payments Bank will be headquartered in Noida and kick off its services from east and north to begin with
Paytm, which recently hived off its e-commerce and payments bank businesses into separate companies, would use these fresh funds to bolster the two businesses
The complaint from the Manager Legal M Sivakumar claimed that the company makes payment for defective products received by a customer and also arranges a reverse pickup of the damaged product which is sent to the merchant.
Mutual funds, as experts and custodians of another set of retail investors' savings, play a speculative game they are neither supposed to nor equipped to do, cautions Debashis Basu.
The market regulator's newly proposed selection criteria for the over Rs 400-trillion-a-day futures and options (F&O) market could pave the way for the entry of popular stocks such as Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India, Jio Financial Services, Zomato, Paytm, DMart, and Adani Energy into the derivatives segment. The Indian derivatives market, which accounts for most of the trading volumes, could see big churn with over two dozen exits from the current list of 182 stocks due to an upward revision in the eligibility thresholds.
The company, however, has not identified any of its officials despite mentioning that its employees facilitating refunds have been assigned specific login id and passwords, making it easier to identify those who processed which refunds
'We are against Alibaba investing in Paytm.' 'We are against the concessions given to Paytm.' 'In fact, we want Paytm to close down because of its alliance with Alibaba.'
In the backdrop of the crisis brewing at Paytm Payments Bank, major fintech companies are ramping up their workforce and inducting new faces in their leadership teams, industry sources said on Wednesday. Users will not be able to add funds to their Paytm Payments Bank Wallet after February 29, though they will still be able to use the services and the existing balance in the wallets, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) diktat. Industry sources said that competitors to Paytm are investing heavily in offline payments while doubling their salesforce.
'Son believes India has a significant opportunity in chip design, especially in creating IP that will be uniquely Indian.'
The company will transfer its wallet business, which has over 218 million mobile wallet users, to the newly incorporated entity -- PPBL -- under the payments bank licence awarded to Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of One97 Communications that owns Paytm.
Seeks to cut biz costs by 10% for sellers across 24 verticals, by slashing fees and delivery charges.
A source said the deal would see Alibaba invest around $600 million
The message is clear: The 60-year-old wise uncles need to handhold the 40-year-old entrepreneurs when, obsessed with ambition and greed for growth, they become a victim of hubris, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
