Davos 2023: Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma Sees Profitability Despite A 'Stressful' Year On Stock Market
In 2022, Paytm discovered "prudent attention to quality revenue and the revenue that contributes to profitability", Sharma said.
The upswing in subscription revenues has helped the company understand merchants' needs and will lead towards increased revenue and profitability, according to Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
"We are in the highest performing state our company ever existed," Sharma, also the chief executive officer of Paytm's parent One97 Communications Ltd., told BQ Prime's Niraj Shah on the sidelines of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
In 2022, the company discovered "prudent attention to quality revenue and the revenue that contributes to profitability", Sharma said.
After a blockbuster listing in 2021, the company's share price has tumbled nearly 75% below the initial public offering price. Apart from global tech selloff, concerns over valuations and profitability have made investors nervous.
"While the year has been stressful from the stock market perspective, but from an execution standpoint, we have never executed better," Sharma said.
Underscoring what he called the "333 mantra"—three years to discover product market, three years to figure out monetisation, and three years to build free cash flows—Sharma said it was the right time to take the digital payments company public.
Paytm is a 10-year-old company that received its first equity funding nearly five years ago. "At six plus years, we knew our revenue and profitability is coming, and we thought that for the newer investor, it could have been a dramatic growth opportunity," Sharma said.
However, Sharma said that he didn't expect public markets globally to "discount technology so much".