Indian startup founders celebrate Paytm’s success as company posts first operating profit

Advertisement
Indian startup founders celebrate Paytm’s success as company posts first operating profit
Paytm
India’s leading digital payments and financial services firm Paytm swung to an operating profit for the first time in Q3FY23, significantly ahead of its target of September 2023. The QR and mobile payments pioneer posted EBITDA before ESOP costs of ₹31 crore, showing an improvement of ₹424 crore from a year ago.
Advertisement

Paytm said its revenue from operations rose 42% year-on-year to ₹2,062 crore in the October-December quarter, with growth driven by increase in merchant subscription revenues, growth in loan distribution and momentum in commerce business.

Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma tweeted, “Paytm, a business built from scratch with conviction on Digital India. From our first app release to becoming a verb in India to operating EBITDA profitability milestone - all in 10 years! Super Proud of Paytm team.”


The news of Paytm's profitability has been met with celebration from the startup and investor community, with CRED Founder Kunal Shah and Sequoia Capital India MD Rajan Anandan taking to social media to congratulate the company and its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Alan Mamedi, the Co-Founder and CEO of Truecaller and noted YouTuber and investor Tanmay Bhat also congratulated Sharma.
Advertisement


“Good first steps in the Marathon that lies ahead Vijay,” wrote UpGrad co-founder and serial entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala.

Edtech startups LEAD’s Sumeet Yashpal Mehta, Stage.in’s Vinay Singhal, HalloApp’s Neeraj Arora, logistics aggregator Raaho’s Imthiaz and CleverTap’s Anand Jain were among the founders who celebrated Paytm’s success and expressed their excitement for the company’s future.

HalloApp Founder and former Chief Business Officer of WhatsApp Neeraj Arora, who is also an independent director on Paytm’s board, called the development a great milestone not only for Paytm but for the entire tech ecosystem.

Paytm's journey to profitability has become a source of inspiration for many other startups.

“Inspiring for us. Headed in the same direction!” LEAD’s Sumeet Yashpal Mehta responded to Sharma’s tweet.
Advertisement

“The sharp execution that you’ve privately been known for, was publicly visible in every single announcement over last few quarters .. was only a matter of time Excited about following the journey to $100Bn!!" wrote Leverage Edu’s founder Akshay Chaturvedi.

Several venture capitalists including IvyCap Ventures’ Tej Kapoor, Ritesh Banglani of Stellaris Venture Partners and Pankaj Jain of Saka Ventures applauded Paytm’s feat. “Congratulations Vijay and the whole Paytm team! May this quarter be the first step in a long, profitable future,” said Banglani.

Several social media users congratulated Sharma on Paytm’s profitability milestone and inspiring youngsters across India.

In a letter to shareholders, Paytm’s Sharma said he is confident the company will soon achieve its next milestone of becoming a free cash flow generating company.
Disclaimer: This article is generated and published by the Insider Studios team. You can get in touch with them on insiderstudios@businessinsider.in
{{}}