Success of Pai Platform (Paytm Ecommerce) - Vijay Shekhar

Vijay Shekhar Sharma (born 7 June 1978) is an Indian technology entrepreneur and multimillionaire business magnate. He is the founder chairman, and managing director of One97 Communications founded in 1997 and its consumer brand Paytm which he started in 2010.

Early life and education

Vijay Shekhar Sharma was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh on 7 June 1978, the third of the four children of Sulom Prakash Sharma, a school teacher, and Asha Sharma, a homemaker. He did his schooling from Harduaganj, a small town near Aligarh. He enrolled in college at the age of 15 and graduated with a B.Tech degree from the Delhi College of Engineering (now Delhi Technological University) at 19 years old [10][11][12]

Career

In 1997, while in college, he started the website indiasite.net, and sold it two years later for US$1 million.[13][14] Three years later, in 2000, he started One97 Communications which offered mobile content including news, cricket scores, ringtones, jokes and exam results.[14] One97 Communications Limited is the parent company of Paytm, a digital payments and financial services company that was launched by Sharma in 2010. In November 2021, Paytm went public raising $2.5 billion at a valuation of $19 billion, making it India's largest initial public offering at that time.

Sharma is also an angel investor who has supported tech startups.

Sharma joined the board of management at Netaji Subhas University of Technology in Delhi for three years.

In 2024, Sharma stepped down from his role as part-time non-executive chairman and board member of Paytm Payments Bank. This decision followed regulatory challenges encountered by the bank with the Reserve Bank of India.

Personal life

He is married to Mridula Parashar Sharma and they have a child.[38] He cites Alibaba's founder Jack Ma and Masayoshi Son of Softbank, as his inspirations. In February 2022, Sharma was arrested by Delhi police for hitting his car into the car of a police officer. He was later released on bail.

Other work

Sharma has been named as the UN Environment's 'Patron for Clean Air', where he helps to drive environmental action and awareness and advocate for the goals of United Nations Environment's global Breathe Life campaign.

Awards and recognition[edit]

• Won the Best Serial Entrepreneur Award at the Rural and Urban Development Summit and Awards 2022 presented by the Minister of State for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India.^[23]
• Ranked the Youngest Indian Billionaire by Forbes magazine ^[24]
• In 2018, he was named the Entrepreneur of the Year by AIMA ^[25]
• Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in 2017.^[26]
• ET Entrepreneur of the Year, by The Economic Times in 2016 ^[27]
• Ranked by GQ in their listing of the 50 most influential young Indians of 2017.^[28]
• In 2017, he became the Dataquest IT Man of the year.^[29]
• Received an Honorary doctorate from Amity University, Gurgaon, in 2016^[30]
• Honored with the Yash Bharati, the highest state civilian award of the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 2016.^[31]
• Named as the Businessman of the Year at GQ Men of the Year Awards 2016.^[32]
• He was conferred with the NDTV Indian of the Year in 2016.^[33]
• Awarded the Impact Person of the Year Award in 2016.^[34]
• Named India's Hottest Business Leader under 40 by The Economic Times in 2015.^[35]
• In September 2015, he was named CEO of the Year by SABRE Award.^[36]

Paytm Ecommerce has renamed itself as ‘Pai Platforms’, according to the company’s filings with the Registrar of Companies.

The company had requested approval for the rebranding a few months ago, and received the same on Wednesday. PTI reported the development first.

The news agency also reported that Paytm has acquired Innobits Solutions Private Limited (Bitsila), an four-year-old ONDC seller. Paytm, however, has refuted the reported acquisition.

“We firmly deny the news of Paytm’s proposed acquisition of Bitsila. The said news is entirely misleading,” a Paytm spokesperson said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Shinjini Kumar and Manju Agarwal have reportedly quit Paytm’s payments bank board. Kumar is a former Bank of America and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) executive, whereas Agarwal is a former managing director at State Bank of India.

These key developments come at a time when Paytm is facing one of its biggest crises so far with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barring Paytm Payments Bank (PPBL) from taking fresh deposits and continuing banking services after February 29 over non-compliance.

The move taken under section 35A of Banking Regulation Act, 1949 also affected Paytm’s other services such as FASTags.

“No further deposits or credit transactions or top ups shall be allowed in any customer accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, FASTags, NCMC cards, etc. after February 29, 2024, other than any interest, cashbacks, or refunds which may be credited anytime. Withdrawal or utilisation of balances by its customers from their accounts including savings bank accounts, current accounts, prepaid instruments, FASTags, National Common Mobility Cards, etc. are to be permitted without any restrictions, upto their available balance,” the central bank said in a notification on January 31.

Recently, RBI deputy governor Swaminathan J clarified that the crackdown on Paytm’s payments bank was not sudden but followed several conversations and giving the company ample time to take corrective measures. 

“When constructive engagement doesn’t work or when the regulated entity does not take effective action, we go for imposing business restrictions,” Das is quoted as saying.

Paytm has said it is working with the authorities to resolve the matter. According to reports, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma held meetings with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the crisis faced by the company’s banking vertical. But it appears there will be no immediate relief for the company.

Following the RBI notification, Paytm’s shares have taken a big hit. At the time of writing this story, Paytm’s shares are trending at Rs 420 a piece. 

Correction: 20:50PM IST: Headline and contents of the story has been updated to reflect that Paytm Ecommerce has made the rebranding.