Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma got emotional during the listing of the stock on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). He was seen wiping his tears with a handkerchief after the national anthem was played at the beginning of his speech at the Listing Ceremony. He said, 'It just happened to me because you sang the national anthem. Whenever the national anthem is played, the words 'Bharat Bhagya Vidhata' bring tears to my eyes.
The family of Vijay Shekhar Sharma was also with him during the listing. Vijay Shekhar and his son Vivaan played the gong together for the listing of Paytm. On the other hand, Vijay Shekhar took blessings by touching his mother's feet on this occasion.
Shares of One 97 Communication, the parent company of digital mobile payment platform Paytm, were heavily beaten. Its stock closed at Rs 1,564, down 27% on the first day as compared to the issue price of Rs 2,150. That is, investors have suffered a loss of Rs 586 per share in comparison to the IPO price. The worst performance of the biggest issue has been in the market.
Sharma, an engineering graduate, founded Paytm as a platform for mobile recharge. The success of Paytm has made Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the son of a school teacher, a billionaire. Paytm's stock listing may have been disappointing, but the story of its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is inspiring.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is a resident of Aligarh. His father was a school teacher. Till 12th he studied in Hindi medium. For graduation, he went to Delhi College of Engineering and studied Electronics and Communication. During his college studies in 1997, he had established the website Indiasite.net and sold it for several lakhs within two years. This is where his entrepreneurship journey started.
By 2010, many business ideas had come to Vijay Shekhar Sharma. In 2011, he decided to work on a smartphone-to-payment model. Paytm became the short form of Pay Through Mobile. Paytm launched a mobile wallet in 2014.
Being an early player in the Indian market, Paytm benefited a lot. Paytm had only 12.5 crore consumers in the first 6 years. The reason for this was the dependence of the Indian consumer on cash. This was a big challenge for Paytm. Even after adding Paytm with smaller shops and merchants, the number of transactions remained very low.
Paytm made the most of the headlines on November 8, 2016, at 8 pm, when the Prime Minister declared 500-1000 rupee notes illegal-tender in the country. According to a report, Paytm saw a 435% increase in traffic in a year post-demonetisation, while the app's downloads increased by 200%. Talking about the total transactions, it increased to 250%.
