By the coming next 2-3 weeks Paytm Money would be taking a major step in becoming a full stack wealth management company, after the Noida based company forays into stockbroking services. Paytm’s founder & CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma made this big bang announcement at the Global Fintech Fest 2020.
However, there was actually nothing surprising about this announcement given that Paytm Money had received Sebi’s approval for starting stockbroking services in August last year itself. Therefore it was only a matter of time that the Alibaba and SoftBank backed company would one day step into the stock broking arena.
By inching closer to become a full stack wealth management company, Paytm Money will foray deeply into investment space. Currently, the Paytm’s subsidiary company’s investment services are restricted to only mutual fund offerings.
However, a broader overview gives a clear hint that Paytm is now striving to become a full-fledge financial services company. Today by virtue of its independent entities Paytm is already present in almost every important sub-sector of the financial industry, from Insurance, digital payment (B2C as well as B2B), payment bank, mutual fund and now stockbroking services.
This is pretty much in line with the long term vision that the unicorn company had envisioned long back.
Coming back to the stockbroking services, there is a curious question as to who will be Paytm Money’s main target customers for its new offering. Will the company go after the big institutional investors or the small retail investors?
Well, Paytm Money’s full time Director Pravin Jadhav has given some hint about this while speaking to business daily Business Standard (BS). Jadhav said that the company will go after retail investors even those belonging to low income group including rickshawalas and taxi drivers. He told BS that the company plans to bring extremely small pocket of broking options, allowing customers to start with even low investment of Rs 100.
Please note Pravin Jadhav resigned as Paytm Money’s MD & CEO in May this year.
Paytm Money raised fresh funds from the parent company
Paytm Money’s impending foray in stockbroking in next couple of weeks has come closely on the heels of its latest fundraising exercise. According to company’s regulatory filings, on January 31st 2020, it raised INR 40 crore from its parent company One97 Communications.
Paytm Money allotted 4 crore equity shares at the face value of Rs 10 each to its parent company One97 Communications, as per the regulatory filings accessed by Techpluto.
Meanwhile, Paytm Money had to face some tough setback in recent months as the company witnessed exodus of top officials. MD & CEO Jadhav, who was also the founding member of Paytm Money, resigned from his post in May. He now serves as the full time director of Paytm Money. Having built the entire team of Paytm Money from scratch, Jadhav’s exit was seen as a major setback.
Sources claim that Jadhav’s exit cannot be considered as an ordinary event as he was the founding as well as a core member of the company. According to reports, the company has already started hunting for a suitable candidate to replace Jadhav.
