Paytm, based in India, plans to go public by the end of October and wants to break even in 18 months, according to a source.
Paytm, an Indian digital payments company plans to make its initial public offering (IPO) by the end of October, assuming regulatory permissions, according to a source familiar with the subject.
Paytm, which has filed for a 166 billion rupee ($2.2 billion) IPO, which is expected to be India’s largest-ever, also plans to break even in 18 months, according to the person, who declined to be identified since the topic is private.
Paytm’s IPO plans come as numerous first-generation Indian businesses prepare to list on local exchanges, headed by food delivery company Zomato, which made a strong stock market debut last week.
“Hopefully, Paytm will be able to go public before Diwali,” the person said, referring to the November Hindu festival of lights.
The firm, which is backed by China’s Ant Group and Japan’s SoftBank, reduced its operational loss from 24.68 billion rupees to 16.55 billion rupees in the financial year to end-March 2021.
“Paytm is now on the road to profitability,” added the insider. “If the corporation keeps doing what it’s doing right now, 18 months is fairly doable, assuming no COVID-related business impact.”
Paytm did not respond to a request for comment.
Paytm, which began as a platform for mobile phone top-ups over a decade ago, has quickly evolved into a fintech company that provides services such as insurance, gold sales, bank deposits, remittances, and movie and aircraft ticketing.
Paytm’s key emphasis areas include online and offline payments and lending, but the company also aims to capitalize on the emerging potential in gaming, travel, and ticketing, and financial services such as mutual funds and stocks trading, according to the source.
According to the source, the company is pushing its payments hardware, such as point-of-sale machines and other devices, to merchants, and Paytm’s software, which helps merchants manage their operations, which will be an important business in the next three to five years.
Paytm’s merchant payments operation will compete with a partnership between Indian conglomerate Reliance and Facebook’s WhatsApp, which has pledged to make digital payments easier for India’s small businesses.
According to sources, the offering values the firm at up to $25 billion and comes at a time when India’s digital economy is experiencing a pandemic-fueled boom, as well as a growing struggle for market dominance with Alphabet Inc’s Google Pay and Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp Pay.
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