One97 Communications Ltd, which owns Paytm, made a layoff in June with the number of affected employees remaining undisclosed. Commenting upon the same at an event on Saturday, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, said that ‘all is well and all is rocking’.
He added that the company’s HR department has been cooperating with almost 30 companies to provide placements for the senior executives and other employees who lost their jobs as part of the layoff.
The fintech firm’s revenue fell by 2.7% from Rs 2,465 crore in Q4 FY23 to Rs 2,399 crore in Q4 FY24. Its losses grew by 227.9% to Rs 551 crore in the March 2024 quarter from Rs 168 crore in Q4 FY23. This has been attributed to writing off Rs 227 crore on its investment in the Paytm Payments Bank Ltd, in which it holds a stake percentage of 49. Paytm Payments Bank is the banking arm of One97 Communications founded in 2017 by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, whose user base amounts to 30 crore.
Earlier in 2024, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had restricted Paytm Payments Bank Limited from taking fresh payments in Paytm wallets, UPI, top-ups, and FASTags, March 15 onwards due to non-compliance issues in KYC norms after considering the interest of customers and merchants. As a result, Paytm’s personnel count in the sales department went from 36,521 to 3,500 in the March 2024 quarter.
The series of similar restrictions began in 2018 when the payments bank was instructed to cease the opening of new accounts by the RBI due to licensing violations and non-compliance with KYC norms. It was fined Rs 1 crore in 2021, in case of reporting false information in money laundering concerns. Then, in 2022, the platform saw a ban that kept it from acquiring new customers.
Sharma added that the fintech company plans to have a leaner AI-led organization by cutting off its minor businesses and aiming for profitability. Additionally, Sharma praised the government’s initiatives and infrastructure development of the start-up ecosystem in the past decade, especially the network of transport that has promoted connectivity in the country.
