A tale of two valuations: The Paytm stock in the era of PhonePe

Last weekend, everyone on the corridors of the Indian fintech world was busy discussing one topic – PhonePe’s USD350 million fundraise at a USD12 billion pre-money valuation. This was the first tranche of a billion-dollar funding round, with a large part coming from its parent, US retail behemoth Walmart. But how can PhonePe command a 3x valuation over its competitor Paytm even though the latter is far ahead in terms of monetising its user base?