Paytm strengthens offline payments leadership with 6.4 million devices, GMV grows 41% to 2.34 lakh cr in Jan-Feb

NEW DELHI- India’s leading digital payments and financial services company has announced its business operating performance for the two months ended February 2023. Consumer engagement on the Paytm Super App continues to see robust growth with the average Monthly Transacting Users (MTU) for the two months ended February 2023 at 89 million, registering a growth of 28% year-on-year.

The fintech giant’s focus on creating additional payment monetization with subscription services has continued to expand. Paytm’s leadership in offline payments strengthened further with 6.4 million merchants now paying subscription for payment devices, an increase of 0.3 million in the month of February 2023. “With our subscription as a service model, the strong adoption of devices drives subscription revenues and higher payment volumes, while increasing the funnel for our merchant loan distribution,” Paytm said in its stock exchange filing.

The company is seeing consistent growth in merchant payments volume with the total merchant Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) processed through the platform for the two months ended February 2023 aggregating to ?2.34 lakh crore ($28.3 billion), marking a year-on-year growth of 41%. “Our focus over the past few quarters continues to be on payment volumes that generate profitability for us, either through net payments margin or from direct upsell potential,” said Paytm, which pioneered QR and mobile payments in India.

The company’s loan distribution business, in partnership with top lenders, continues to witness accelerated growth with disbursements through the platform for the two months ended February 2023 growing 286% year-on-year to ?8,086 Cr ($979 million). The number of loans disbursed in the two months surged 94% to 7.9 million loans. Paytm said it continues to work with its lending partners to remain focused on the quality of the book, adding its payments consumer and merchant base offers a large addressable market.

In its recently announced October-December quarter (Q3FY23) results, Paytm achieved the milestone of operating profitability, nine months ahead of its September 2023 guidance. The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) before employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) cost stood at ?31 crore with EBITDA before ESOP margin at 2% of revenues as compared to (27%) a year ago. The fintech pioneer’s revenue from operations increased 42% year-on-year to ?2,062 crore, driven by growth in its core payments business and sustained growth momentum in the credit business and commerce business.