The Fact Maker

Paytm continues to show strong growth in business — disburses 6.8 million loans in October and November, now has over 5.5 million devices

Indian digital payments and financial services leader Paytm continues to show strong growth. The company today shared an exchange filing about its operating metrics for October and November. The company’s annualised run rate for the loan distribution business is now ₹39,000 crore ($4.8 billion.) 
In the two months, Paytm has distributed 6.8 million loans (y-o-y growth of 150%), aggregating to loan disbursements of ₹6,292 Cr ($774 million, y-o-y growth of 374%). “We see a significant growth runway given low current penetration, while we continue to work with our partners to remain focused on the quality of the book,” said the company in its exchange filing. 
The company’s leadership in offline payments strengthens with merchants paying subscriptions for payment devices exceeding 5.5 million. “With our subscription as a service model, the strong adoption of devices drives higher payment volumes and subscription revenues, while increasing the funnel for our merchant loan distribution,” said the company The usage of Paytm Super App has also hit another high as the company said its average monthly transacting users (MTU) is at 84 million for the two months ended November 2022, up 33% y-o-y .
This consumer and merchant ecosystem has led the company to amass merchant payment volumes (GMV) for the two months ended November 2022 at ₹2.28 Lakh Cr ($28 billion), y-o-y growth of 37%. 
Paytm has been in the news for its proposed buyback. The company’s board will be meeting on December 13 to discuss the plan, and only after an approval will Paytm share more details with the exchanges. However, the news of a buyback has instilled investor confidence as it shows that the Paytm management is sure of its growth and profitability plans.