Paytm: A Payments Journey in India

Paytm was an Indian financial technology company. Since its launch in 2010, it had built a dominant payments system in India, comprising mobile wallets, offline payments via QR codes, and a payments bank that offered no-frills banking. However, in 2016, the Indian government launched a free, publicly available digital payments platform, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), that removed barriers for entry into the payments market. With its dominant advantage eroded, Paytm had to strategize a new business model to ensure profitability. By 2023, the company’s leadership was confident that Paytm had found a profitable model and was on the right path. But they were still debating what was next for the company. Which business vertical should it focus on? Should it expand internationally? Which path would help Paytm become India’s dominant fintech company?