Paytm losses soar 312% to Rs 1,534 cr, but Alibaba-backed firm projects Rs 869 cr revenue

38°

2016-08-23

Paytm losses soar 312% to Rs 1,534 cr, but Alibaba-backed firm projects Rs 869 cr revenue

Digital payments and e-commerce platform Paytm has posted a net loss of R1,534 crore in the financial year ended March 2016, a rise of 312% over the previous year, according to a filing with the registrar of companies, reports Mahesh Kulkarni in Bengaluru.

By: Mahesh Kulkarni | Bengaluru | Published: August 23, 2016 6:55 AM

While the company has not furnished details of its revenues for the year ended March 2016, it has instead projected a revenue of R869 crore for the year in the RoC filing.

The Noida-based One 97 Communications, founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, operates the digital commerce company under the brand name Paytm.

Going by the company’s estimates, as of June 30, 2016, Paytm was valued at $2.3 billion. The company recently allotted preferential shares to three of its non-executive directors — Naveen Tewari (Inmobi), Neeraj Arora (WhatsApp) and Ruchi Chandrakant Sangvi — and raised Rs 2.47 crore. All of them were allotted 2,500 equity shares each at a price of Rs 3,300 per share. A total of 46.2 million shares were issued by the company. “The amount invested in this offer will be utilised in the manner set forth in the business plan approved by the board of directors,” the company said in its filing to the RoC.

Paytm earns revenue through the mobile wallet and e-commerce business. Its payments business includes mobile recharges, money transfer, and flight, bus and railway ticketing, among others. The company also provides payment gateway services and is authorised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to provide and operate a semi-closed wallet.

With a user base of 126 million, Paytm entered into key tie-ups with IRCTC, SpiceJet and Mumbai Metro during the last financial year. It also launched in the education category. The gross merchandise value (GMV) increased 46% to Rs 717 crore in June 2015 compared with Rs 491 crore in March 2015. The number of wallets more than doubled to 85 million in June 2015 from 41 million in March 2015. Marketplace orders increased to 1.35 million in June 2015 from 780,000 in March of the same year. During 2015-16, the company’s gross merchandise value (GMV) was estimated at $3.1 billion.

Late last year, Paytm raised $200 million in funding from the Alibaba Group affiliate Ant Financial. In FY14 the company had shown a profit of Rs 5.6 crore against a revenue of Rs 210 crore.

Paytm, which currently reaches to around 39,000 pincodes across the country, is adding more sellers in the tier-II and tier-III cities and beyond. The company received RBI approval in August last year to set up a payments bank. It had last year set aside $250 million for the payments banking business. It also aims to recruit around 3,000 people for the new business unit.

(Source – http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/compan...)