Paytm aims to become free cash flow positive in the near future, says CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma in shareholder letter

India’s leading mobile payments and financial services company Paytm’s Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma has written a letter to shareholders.

In the letter, he said the next milestone is to make the company’s free cash flow positive in the near future.

Paytm has posted operating profit (EBITDA before ESOP costs) for two straight quarters.

In Q4 FY 2023, Paytm reported a 51% jump in operations revenue at 2,334 crores, while its operating profit stood at ₹234 crores, including the full-year UPI incentive recorded during the quarter.

Sharma credited the company’s disciplined resource allocation for profitability and focus on the core revenue and growth drivers of payments and financial services distribution businesses.

“Our focus on quality revenues has led to more rupees to the bottom line and our incremental business continues to generate better margins. As a responsible payments technology company, we continue to build our business on the foundation of strong adherence to compliance, operations risk, and regulatory framework,” he stated in the letter.

Looking forward, Sharma believes that with the advent of early-stage AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) in 2023, there will be more opportunities to improve business and AI-first offerings.

The company’s technology teams have already seen encouraging results.
Sharma saw AGI as something like smartphones 10 years ago – ripe for innovation and potent to become part of everyday life at scale. As a technology company, he said Paytm would be at the forefront of this revolution.

In FY23, the company’s revenues grew by 61% YoY to ₹7,990 Cr, becoming India’s highest-earning new-age company. Paytm is on track to bring 10 crore merchants and 50 crore as payment users in the near future.

– Press release by One 97 Communications Ltd.