In India’s biggest-ever initial public offering, paytm is looking to raise nearly $2.5 billion (nearly INR 18,300 crore). The IPO hits on the fifth anniversary of the note ban that boosted the growth of Paytm and made its name synonymous with digital payments.
Paytm is a digital payments platform launched back in 2010. The company is backed by digital payments platform Jack Ma’s Ant Group, Japan’s SoftBank, and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. The compass has a gross merchant volume (GMV) of over Rs 4 lakh crore in FY21. It boasts 33.7 crore consumers and over 2.2 crore merchants registered on the platform, as of June 30.
Paytm has also raised INR 8,235 crore from anchor investors ahead of its share sale.
Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, investors like Japan’s SoftBank, China’s Ant Group, and Alibaba as well as Elevation Capital will be diluting their stakes in the IPO. According to the prospectus, Paytm is issuing fresh shares worth $1.1 billion (around INR 8300 Crore) and existing shareholders are selling stocks worth $1.34 billion (around INR 10000 Crore).
Indian companies have already raised a record $9.7 billion through IPOs in 2021 so far. Before Paytm’s IPO, Zomato was the country’s biggest IPO with its $1.3 billion share issue in July. India has also seen a record number of unicorns this year.
