Paytm Sees Bigger Losses as It Reels From IPO Fallout

Digital payments service Paytm reported a larger loss last quarter as it tries to recuperate from a painful initial public offering (IPO) last November, Bloomberg reported Friday (Feb. 4).

Its parent company, One97 Communications, reported a loss of $104 million, or 7.8 billion rupees, for the December quarter. That’s compared with a loss of 4.74 billion rupees the previous quarter.

However, the company’s revenues were up 34%, hitting 14.6 billion rupees.

The IPO in question raised $2.5 billion last year, but after that, there was a large fall in the stock price, with Bloomberg writing that investors put in 2,150 rupees a share and then immediately saw it plunge, closing in that day at 953.3 rupees.

The stock activity had been painful for the company’s early backers, with the market cap dropping to 618 billion rupees. Investors will now be looking into the new quarterly numbers to see if Paytm can move towards being profitable.

The numbers showed payment services to consumers and merchants increasing 60% and 117% respectively, and the company’s partners distributed 4.4 million loans valued at around 21.8 billion rupees during the quarter.

Last month, PYMNTS reported that Paytm teamed up with credit company Fullerton on offerings of lending products. The partnership will offer Paytm Postpaid, the company’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) product, to more customers with Fullerton’s scale and capability for deep risk assessment.

See also: Paytm, Fullerton, Partner on Consumer Lending

The companies also plan to expand their offerings and offer digitally-oriented personal loans, disbursed with Paytm tech and Fullerton’s pan-India reach.

“We have seen great adoption of the lending products among consumers and merchants on our platform,” said Bhavesh Gupta, CEO of Paytm Lending. “We believe that there is a massive opportunity to provide access to credit to merchants in small cities and towns.”

Meanwhile, Fullerton India’s CEO and managing director Shantanu Mitra said the companies both understand the importance of having timely and convenient credit for smaller businesses.