Paytm Like A Daughter Who Met With Accident, Now In ICU: Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said his company is like a daughter who met with an unfortunate accident and is now recovering in the ICU. He was referring to the impact caused by the RBI's action on its unit, Paytm Payments Bank Ltd.

The veteran made the remarks at an event by the Jain International Trade Organisation.

"My company is like my daughter. Paytm was heading towards full profitability, making free cash flow, and then my topper daughter met with an accident on her way to her JEE exam. And now she's in the ICU. That's the kind of personal, emotional feeling I have. At a professional level, we should've done better; we should've understood better. We had responsibilities that we should've fulfilled much better," Sharma said.

In terms of whether it's the craziest thing that's happened to Paytm, Sharma said there have been more dire times earlier. "There are even deeper cuts that have happened. During fundraising, there were times when I thought that if we disappeared today, no one would even care. Today, at least, we matter. So, it's better," he said.

Sharma reiterated that his ambition remains to create a $1 billion revenue company and take Paytm to a $100 billion valuation, like many other Western tech and internet companies.

"When you land in Tokyo, San Francisco or London, you see several homegrown companies. One day, Paytm will also be present everywhere and we'll be able to proudly call it a global Indian company proudly. Till the time that happens, I'm not done," he said.

While answering a question on how the listing crash impacted the company, Sharma said he drew inspiration from long-time investor and guide, SoftBank's Masayoshi Son.

"Masa (Son) taught me a lot. The way he recovered after losing 99% of his wealth inspired me. To me, the stock crash mattered but what mattered more was whether we have a great, healthy company that can continue to grow and invest," he said.

He added that public markets are not under anyone's control, investors will understand the issues that they currently discount, and the company will sort them out in due course.

"Even stocks like Reliance and Tesla were flat for a long time and investors took time to understand their business and expectations were executed," he said.

On whether listing was the right step, Sharma drew an analogy to marriage. "One should get married in life. Keeping a company private is like staying a bachelor. So, I don't regret going public, but it's like a 'shaadi ka laddoo', those who eat will repent and those who don't will also repent. A listing brings a lot of maturity, responsibility, joy and opportunities," he said.