Paytm clocks 35 pc merchant growth to Rs 2.65 lakh crore in Apr-May 2023

NEW DELHI: India's leading payments and financial services company Paytm on Monday announced its business operating performance for the two months ended May 2023 and that its consumer engagement on the Paytm Super App continues to see robust expansion of its consumer base. The consumer base has seen an average Monthly Transacting Users (MTU) for the two months ended May 2023 at 9.2 crore, registering a growth of 24 per cent year-on-year.

As it strengthens its leadership in offline payments, the QR pioneer said it achieved a new milestone with 75 lakh devices deployed, an increase of 4 lakh devices in the month of May. "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," the company said.

Paytm 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 May 2023 aggregating to Rs 2.65 lakh crore ($32.1 billion), marking a year-on-year growth of 35 per cent. "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," added Paytm.

The fintech giant's loan distribution business, in partnership with top lenders, continues to witness accelerated growth with disbursements through the platform for the two months ended May 2023 growing 169 per cent year-on-year to Rs 9,618 crore ($1.1 billion). The number of loans disbursed in the two months surged 54 per cent to 85 lakh loans.

Paytm said that it currently has seven large lending partners and aims to onboard 3-4 partners in FY24 while it continues to work with lenders to remain focused on the quality of the book. The company further added that the earlier mentioned system upgrade is now done and its lending partner has resumed disbursing merchant loans, with some pent-up demand from April being met in May.

In its recently announced January-March quarter (Q4FY23) results, Paytm reported a 51 per cent Year Over Year (YoY) growth in revenue from operations to Rs2,334 crore, driven by growth in payments and loan distribution business. The company reported an operating profit for the second straight quarter. It reported EBITDA before ESOP cost of Rs 234 crore, including the full-year UPI incentive. In the previous quarter, Paytm achieved its milestone of operating profitability, much ahead of its September 2023 guidance.