Paytm claims four-fold growth in GTV, crosses $20 Bn mark with 50% jump in ATV

Digital payments firm Paytm’s annual gross value of services and products sold on its platform (GTV) has crossed $20 billion (about Rs 1.3 lakh crore) in February. This is a four-fold increase from March last year.

We were doing $5 billion worth of transactions, which has now grown to $20 billion, said Paytm chief operating officer Kiran Vasireddy to ET. The payment firm is also on a path to register one billion transactions every quarter, based on the number of transactions the platform recorded in February.

It claims to have 50 percent increase in transactions value on the platform — from $3.3 to $5. Now it has offline merchant base of 70 lakh, out of which 50 per cent are from the top cities.

The recent growth is credited to company's offline push and tie-ups with existing players.

According to its COO, RBI mandate requiring digital wallet providers to verify all customer details, which is said to reduce the user base of wallet firms by 80-90 per cent, has not impacted the firm.

Though its recent claim to drive the largest number of UPI transactions in February, was countered by the Flipkart-owned firm PhonePe.

Recently Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma got ranked 1,394th on the Forbes list with a fortune of $1.7 billion. He was the only Indian billionaire in the under-40 league. Sharma, who founded Paytm in 2011, also created Paytm Mall, an e-commerce business and Paytm Payments Bank. Paytm's founder owns 16 per cent of Paytm, which is now valued at $9.4 billion.

It has got backing from investors such as SoftBank Group, SAIF Partners, Alibaba and Ant Financial Services. Paytm claims to have 250 million registered users and 7 million transactions daily.

Besides, in January this year, the payment platform has set up a new entity called Paytm Money to sell financial products with $10 million initial investment.

In a recent interview, Vijay Shekhar Sharma said that Paytm plans to be an internet ecosystem player, which can play out in as many segments of the internet as possible. It also claimed to have been profitable at EBTIDA level.

"We have profitability at a contribution level, and at an EBITDA level, and we'll always be investing. We have money for the next four years spending the way we are now," he added.

By mid-year, the platform is looking to do some content pieces in the next app updates. It is also planning to expand to some other countries.