PAYTM’S MERCHANT BASE NEARLY DOUBLES IN 2 YEARS

Paytm, whose parent company One97 Communications on Friday filed the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), said its total merchant base grew to 21.1 million as of March 31, from 11.2 million in March 31, 2019.

Also, its Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), which is the rupee value of total payments made to merchants through its app Paytm Payment Instruments or through its payment solutions over a period, increased to ~4.03 trillion as of March 31, from ~2.29 trillion as of March 31, 2109.

GMV excludes any consumer-to-consumer payment service such as money transfers.

According to a Redseer report, which the company has quoted in its DRHP, Paytm is India’s leading digital ecosystem for consumers and merchants, offering payment services, commerce and Cloud services, and financial services to 333 million consumers and over 21.1 million merchants, as of March 31, 2021.

Paytm derives a majority of its revenue from transaction fees they collect from merchants for their payment services.

In FY21, its revenue from payment and financial services was 75.3 per cent of its total revenue from operations.

The Covid-19 pandemic, the DRHP said, adversely impacted the company’s operations and the operations of its merchants and business partners and it is continuing to do so.