The fund has been sponsored by VSS Investco Pvt., an entity owned and controlled by Sharma. Other external investors will also participate in the fund, and it will be actively managed by a professional investment manager.

“The fund will target artificial intelligence and electric vehicles-related startups, that are incubated in India, and are specially focused to serve Indian consumers and businesses,” the statement said. Various follow-on investments in Sharma’s current startup investments in the consumer and B2B tech spaces will also come from this fund, it said.

“The Indian startup ecosystem has some of the brightest entrepreneurs in the world, and we have the potential to become a powerhouse of advanced technology and AI-driven innovation.

The launch of this fund is a continuation of my belief in supporting young and promising Indian founders, aligned with the fact that technology has a huge role to play in the development of the country,” Sharma said. As an angel investor, Sharma has backed several startups, including Ola Electric, Josh Talks, Mesa School, Unnati, Kawa Space, Praan, GOQii, KWH Bikes, Daalchini and Treebo Hotels.

The post Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma Launches First Fund To Back AI, EV Startups appeared first on The India Bizz Startup News Website.

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Last month, Sharma said he believes that Paytm will be profitable by September next year

Besides Sharma, a number of other senior executives of the startup also bought its shares in May

Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma purchased 1.72 lakh shares of One 97 Communications Ltd, the parent company of the fintech unicorn, worth INR 11 Cr on May 30-31, regulatory filings showed.

On May 30, Sharma bought 1,00,552 shares of the company for INR 6.31 Cr. The next day, the Paytm CEO bought another 71,469 shares for INR 4.68 Cr.

Sharma holds 5.76 Cr shares of the fintech unicorn after the two transactions.

Shares of Paytm ended 5.27% higher at INR 646.30 apiece on Friday (June 17) on the NSE.

It is prudent to note here Sharma, as per the regulations, was not allowed to buy shares for at least six months after Paytm’s IPO in November 2021 since he was a selling shareholder at the IPO. 

A number of other senior executives of the startup also bought the company’s shares in May. Atul Shridhar, who is VP of Engineering at Paytm, bought 24,020 shares for INR 1.33 Cr. 

Nilesh Kumar Singh, VP Human Resources at Paytm, purchased 11,602 shares for INR 64.25 Lakh. Further, Praveen Kumar Sharma, MD & CEO of Paytm Payments Bank, bought 9,787 shares for INR 54.20 Lakh.

In an earnings call with the investors on May 21, Sharma said he believed that Paytm will be profitable by September next year. “Like I publicly disclosed in a letter, we remain committed and I’m even more convinced that we will be delivering operating profitability – that is EBITDA before ESOP costs – by the September quarter next year,” he said.

However, Sharma said that the date was not absolute as it is based on Paytm’s operating revenues. Therefore, the date is subject to change because of any extraordinary gains or losses made during the period.

“Our September quarter breakeven is explicitly and completely based on operating revenues. Any extraordinary charges like ESOPs or any extraordinary gains, if there are any, are not part of the plan, or even calculated or factored in,” he said.

Paytm’s net losses in the quarter ended March 2022 widened to INR 762.5 Cr from INR 444.4 Cr in Q4 of FY21. At the same time, it reported a 41% year-on-year (YoY) increase in its net loss to INR 2,396.4 Cr for FY22. Further, the listed startup’s revenue from operations grew 77% to INR 4,974.2 Cr in FY22.

In a recent regulatory filing, the fintech unicorn reported disbursing 5.5 Mn loans in the two months ending May 2022. The total value of these loans was INR 3,576 Cr. 

Paytm also reported processing merchant payments worth a gross merchandise value (GMV) of INR 1.96 Lakh Cr during the same time. It added that its average monthly transacting users (MTU) reached 74 Mn during the two months ending May 2022.

The post Vijay Shekhar Sharma Buys 1.72 Lakh Paytm Shares Worth INR 11 Cr appeared first on The India Bizz Startup News Website.

The post Vijay Shekhar Sharma Buys 1.72 Lakh Paytm Shares Worth INR 11 Cr appeared first on The India Bizz Startup News Website.

We are excited to announce the launch of our Android Mini App Store to support Indian developers to take their innovative products to the masses.

Mini apps are a custom-built mobile website that gives users app-like experience without having to download them, which would greatly benefit millions of citizens to save their limited data and phone memory.

We are providing listing and distribution of these mini-apps within our app without any charges. For payments, developers will be able to give a choice of Paytm Wallet, Paytm Payments Bank, UPI, net-banking and Cards to their users.

We have created the digital infrastructure to enable small developers and businesses to set up low-cost, quick-to-build mini-apps which can be built using HTML and javascript technologies.

We provide Paytm wallet, Paytm Payments Bank account and UPI at zero charges and levies a 2% charge for other instruments like credit cards.

Our local India’s app store aims to drive the Atmanirbhar Bharat mission while keeping the digital consumer spends within India.

Paytm Founder & CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma said, “I am proud that we are today launching something that creates an opportunity for every Indian app developer. Paytm Mini App Store empowers our young Indian developers to leverage our reach and payments to build new innovative services.

For Paytm users, it will be a seamless experience that doesn’t require any separate download and enables them to use their preferred payment option

Our Mini App Store offers direct access to discover, browse, and Pay without downloading or installing separate apps. More than 300 app-based service providers such as Decathalon, Ola, Park+, Rapido, Netmeds, 1MG, Domino’s Pizza, FreshMenu, NoBroker have already joined the program.

It comes with a developer dashboard for analytics, payments collection along with various marketing tools to engage with the users. This app store has been running in beta with select users and witnessed over 12 million visits in the month of September.

We believe that through this initiative India would be able to build a sustainable and thriving local technology ecosystem that resonates with the true spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat. Growing technology companies will get the opportunity to rely on India’s Paytm to contribute towards the overall growth of the Indian economy and create employment.

The post Launching our Android Mini App Store for Indian developers appeared first on The India Bizz Startup News Website.

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