Vijay Shekhar Sharma

• Born - Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

• Nationality - Indian

• Education - Delhi College of Engineering

• Occupation - Founder & CEO of Paytm And One97 communications Ltd.

• Paytm stands for “Pay through Mobile”

• It is founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010 under the company name One97 communication.

• Initially it was focused on mobile and DTH recharging.

• It is headquartered in Noida and in 2014 it entered ecommerce market, providing products and facilities similar to Flipkart and Amazon.

• In 2015, it entered into bus booking. Recently Alibaba has bought 25% stake in One97 communication.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma – the man behind Paytm success

• Vijay Shekhar was topper of his school completed his XII when he was just 15 years old and got admission in engineering college.

• He faced difficulty in his studies at Delhi College of Engineering because he did not speak English.

• During his college he used to read magazines online and got to know about Silicon Valley.

• He used to spend most of his time in school computer center and dreamt of becoming Sabeer Bhatia, founder of Hotmail.

• It was then he realized that instead of taking up a job it would be better to create something on our own.

• In 1997, while in college Sharma started the website indiasite.net and sold it two years later for $1 million.

• In 2001, he started One97 Communications which offered mobile content like news, cricket scores, ringtones, jokes and exam results.

• One97 now is Paytm’s parent company. He started college at 15 and runs a billion dollar company at age 37 now.

• In December 2015, Sharma criticized Facebook's Free Basics initiative in India, as being against the principle of net neutrality.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s incredible life story!

• Vijay Shekhar Sharma owns a company whose current value is a little over $3 billion in the market in 2016, a dream dreamt when he was struggling to make ends meet with Rs 10 in pocket. But he tasted victory the hard way. Nothing came easy for him.

• Life tested him right from the beginning of his journey to become one of the most influential people in the business world today. Though he passed his higher secondary when he was just 15 years old, a child prodigy of sorts, making it through college was the first tough challenge he faced when he left the cosy comfort of his small hometown and ventured into the real world.

• A topper in his school, he was lost in transition in college-Delhi College of Engineering. Coming from a very humble background. Vijay did not know how to read and write English because he completed his school education completely in Hindi, in his small town.

• However, he realised soon enough that to make it through college he must start learning the language first and with the help of books, second hand magazines and his friends.

• The first-bencher in school slowly started gravitating towards the back benches, and in a short while, was so disheartened and disillusioned with his bad grades, mostly due to language constraints and he completely stopped attending college.

• So he taught himself English using dictionaries and poring over second-hand magazines. It was the mid-90s and copies of Fortune 500 transported the teen to a new world - that of Silicon Valley and the internet. He felt he belonged there, but as was the case so often in those years, there was a major obstruction. “There was no way I could have gone. I remember the IIM fee was Rs. 2,30,000! So this was the underdog movement for me”, Vijay said, “one day I will be worth enough to hire these people”.

• While still in college, he created a website that included a search engine, sold it, then set up One97, which provided Value-Added Services or VAS like premium or paid content to mobile phone operators. The future was looking bright and then the stock market crashed. That was the time when bus-rides became a luxury and tea a treat.

• Then, in 2010, he launched Paytm, an online payment platform. And it all came together. 4,000 employees now, an online wallet that is near ubiquitous and a full-blown e-commerce site.

• In 2010, when he first pitched the idea of entering the payment ecosystem in front of his board. The board was not convinced, as he was talking about betting the company's money on a non-existent market.

• So he put 1% of his equity, which was about $2 million around 2010, on the table and said, "This is for all of you, if I waste the money that we put on the site." He adds, "There is no fun in doing what others ask you to do, the real fun is in doing what people say you can't do.“

“And it is with this belief that the first avatar of Paytm, Pay Through Mobile, was born, going rapidly onto becoming the next big thing of the startup

ecosystem in India. And, since then it was never looking back.”

Reason for Paytm success

• Quick and Easy

• Safe and secure

• Attractive deals and cash back

• Effective promotional ads

• Newer deals

Different product Line at Paytm• Online Recharge – You can recharge online your mobile, DTH, Data card,

landline, electricity, Income tax Gas, metro, financial services etc. Paytm within in a short period of time has made available all sort of billings within few clicks and has saved lot of time of the customers.

• Online retail product – Paytm is now selling almost everything from electronics to daily use, from fashion to home accessories it covers all.

• Paytm wallet- It is the most important reason for the success of Paytm. Paytm wallet is approved by RBI and now has been the largest wallet in India. It can be used to make payments across all the products on website and can be used to make payments at other websites for e.g. PayTm has partnered with Uber, IRCTC through which payment can be done through the Paytm wallet.

Some stats regarding Paytm

• It is the India’s biggest transacting website (after IRCTC).

• It is the India’s fastest growing consumer internet brand

• It has 100 million users and has around gross 100 crore wallet money more than various functioning banks.

• Ranked no.1 in shopping on Google play store and no.2 in utility on apple sore.

• Alibaba has around 25% stake in One97 Communication.

• 90% repeat users.

• 15+ million visits per month.

• 10+ million unique users.

Investors • Alibaba Group

• Ratan Tata, Chairman emeritus of $100 billion Tata Sons

• SAIF Partner

• Intel Capital

• Silicon Valley Bank