Ease of doing business for MSMEs: Mobile internet company One97 Communications, the parent entity of digital payments and financial services provider Paytm, on Wednesday reported a 109 per cent growth in payment devices subscribed by its merchants as of June 2023 from June 2022. In an exchange filing, the company, which competes with PhonePe, Gpay and other digital payments apps, said the number of merchants paying subscription for its payment devices like soundbox and point-of-sale (PoS) machines increased to 79 lakh as of June this year from 38 lakh during June last year.
“We continue to strengthen our leadership in offline payments, with 79 lakh merchants now paying subscription for payment devices, an increase of 11 lakh devices in the quarter. With our subscription as a service model, the strong adoption of devices drives subscription revenues and higher payment volumes, while increasing the funnel for our merchant loan distribution,” the statement said.
The company’s total merchant payment volumes (gross merchandise value) processed for the quarter ended June also grew by 37 per cent to Rs 4.05 lakh crore from Rs 2.96 lakh crore during the quarter ended June last year. “Our focus over the past few quarters continues to be on payment volumes that generate profitability for us, either through net payments margin or from direct upsell potential.”
Meanwhile, Paytm’s loan distribution business in partnership with large non-banking financial companies and banks continued to scale with total disbursements through its platform for the June quarter growing by 167 per cent YoY to Rs 14,845 crore from Rs 5,554 crore during the year-ago period. The number of loans or loan volume disbursed also increased by 51 per cent from 85 lahk during the June quarter last year to 1.28 crore during the 2023 June quarter.
Also read: Paytm nears 6 million merchants paying subscription for payment devices in Q3
Paytm currently has seven active lending partners and it aims to onboard three-four partners in FY24. Last month, the company had announced its loan distribution partnership with Shriram Finance. Paytm had a registered merchant base of over 34 million and average monthly transacting users of 92 million.