Paytm’s revenue recorded 38% increase in FY17 while losses shrunk to 39%

Unlike major horizontal e-commerce players, Paytm’s payment arm had controlled its losses while improving revenue by significant 38.6 per cent. The Alibaba-backed company had reported revenue of Rs 828.6 crore as compared to Rs 597.8 crore in the preceding fiscal, reveals RoC filings.

The largest digital payment company had reflected an overall loss of Rs Rs 1,259.5 crore during FY17 while the consolidated loss further dropped to Rs 899.6 crore. Importantly, the losses were largely slipped down because Paytm product-based e-commerce division – Paytm Mall had paid Rs 620 crore to the parent company for transfer of assets during the time of hive off.

One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm had hived off Paytm Mall as a separate entity in December 2016 and launched a standalone app and website in February last year.

The company’s overall expenses increased to Rs 2088.1 crore in FY17 from Rs 1,775 crore in the previous fiscal.

Meanwhile, Paytm Mall had reported a loss of around Rs 13.63 crore on total sales of Rs 7.35 crore in the year ended March 31, 2017. The total expenditure of the company stood at Rs 20 crore, while reserves and surplus stood at Rs 1,284 crore, the RoC filings showed.

Two months ago, SoftBank and Alibaba had injected $445 million in Paytm Mall at a valuation of $2 billion. While Softbank had invested $400 million, about $45 million came from Alibaba.

Paytm Payments Bank recorded a loss of Rs 30.7 crore between August 2016 and March 31, 2017. The banking arm had started operations in May last year. It had an overall revenue of about Rs 2.47 crore during the aforementioned period.

To get a larger pie in fledgling fintech segment Paytm has aggressively been betting on wealth management, insurance, and lending verticals. It already had sought a license for selling insurances from regulatory body IRDA and incorporated Paytm Money with an initial investment of about Rs 67 crore ($10 million).

The development was reported by Mint.