Pivot Play

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is leading a concerted effort to build on the success of his payments platform and create a large digital financial services growth engine for his venture. But competition is fierce and success is not assured

- HARICHANDAN ARAKALI

Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Founder and CEO, Paytm

Age: 42

Rank in the Rich List

Net Worth: $2.35 billion

The Big Challenges Faced in the Last Year: Delivering customer experience despite the teams working from home

The Way Forward: To build Paytm into a large new-age financial services company that impacts a billion people, and empower MSMEs across India with digital financial technologies

Vijay Shekhar Sharma dreams of Paytm touching a billion lives. India’s largest mobile wallet provider by users is making a conscious pivot to financial services, thereby providing small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with digital financial technology that will help them grow their business.

“Paytm is revolutionising access to digital payments and financial services in India. We hope to be India’s champion of new-age enterprises that is committed to proving the country's technology, product, and scale on a global stage,” Sharma, founder, and CEO of Paytm tells Forbes India via email. “Our focus is to democratize wealth, insurance, and lending products that can cater to half a billion Indians.”