No more cash burn, profitability is in focus: Can VSS deliver for Paytm, and himself?

Portrait by Manali Ghosh

Synopsis
Paytm has set a few near-term goals such as pushing the lending cart apart from turning Ebitda positive by the September quarter of FY24. While Paytm shares have fallen 75% since listing over a year ago, its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, or VSS, wants to prove investors wrong about the company’s real valuation. Where is Paytm headed?

At a banking event in late December, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma made a nerve-soothing comment — there won’t be any more cash burn at the company. Amid public-market investors’ cry for profitability and criticism of its INR821 crore share buyback plan by some analysts, Sharma seems to be trying to strike the right chord. He has promised that the company will turn Ebitda positive by the September quarter of FY24 and achieve net

( Originally published on Jan 04, 2023 )