When Forbes named Vijay Shekar Sharma as the youngest billionaire of India in 2017, the net worth of his company PayTM was $2.1 billion. In June 2019, the company is credited with a net worth of $2.7 billion. The son of a simple school teacher, how Vijay Shekar Sharma built his success story is highly interesting and inspiring. Here are a few interesting facts about him that can move the readers to admire this amazing personality.
His business benefited from the change
How Sharma rose to success was by taking the wind’s direction to his advantage. When the internet industry was turning intricate, Vijay Shekar perceived a paradigm shift in the process of billing from paying bills at physical outlets to online payment. He took inspiration from this shift and launched PayTM that expands as Pay Through Mobile. The favourable climate around him paved way for his quick success. In the online payments arena.
Past awards and recognitions
In 2015, Vijay Shekar was credited with the most coveted ‘India’s Innovative CEO Award’. In a celebration, PayTM was also recognized among Delhi’s top 50 brands. In 2006, PayTM was identified as the “Most Innovative Start-up of the Year”.
He was a child prodigy
Vijay began his college life as early as 15 years of age. He graduated as an engineer when he was just 19 years. In 1997 when he was doing his college studies, he started a website indiasite.net and later sold it for $1 million two years later.
The initial journey for him was tough
In 2001 Vijay started One97, the parent company of PayTM. He had to take a loan of 8 lakhs to fund his startup. Soon he realized the repayment was getting tougher. Hence he took up some petty jobs like delivering guest lectures and setting up LAN connections in order to see that both the ends met. His fortune turned gradually upwards and he could occupy the 1567th rank in the World’s Billionaire’s List by Forbes. This position made him the youngest billionaire of India.
Vijay’s wealth shot up even when PayTM suffered losses
In 2018, Vijay’s net worth rose to $2.6 billion, which was close to Rs 18,000 crore. Hence he was ranked at the 877th position among the 2,153 global billionaires. This happened despite his company PayTM was reported to suffer a loss of Rs 3,393 crore.
His business benefited from demonetization
In November 2016, the Indian government announced one of the biggest ever demonetization moves on the earth in which the high-value currency notes were withdrawn. This measure intended to crack down the black money market, illegal money laundering and terrorist funding, had also struck a severe blow on a large number of businesses. While demonetization slashed away the cash worth billions of dollars within a very short period of time, a huge segment of the population turned towards digital payments. This move gave a big boost to PayTM which gained tremendously from demonetization and spurted to growth.
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