On Monday Paytm Money officially forayed in stockbroking space after it unveiled its all-in-one app. This new all-in-one app will allow Paytm Money’s existing users and prospective customers to invest in mutual funds, NPS (national pension scheme) and also stocks through a single platform. Paytm’s CEO and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma disclosed about this development on Paytm Money’s official twitter handle.
However, the company has said that this newly unveiled app will be launched gradually and therefore not everyone can access this app immediately.
Sharma had already said last month at the Global Fintech Fest 2020 that Paytm Money will foray into stockbroking in matter of few weeks. This news though did not come as a major surprise to anyone given that the company had already acquired stockbroking license from SEBI in August last year itself.
Notably, Paytm Money’s newly appointed CEO Varun Sridhar will now have the additional responsibility of handling a new vertical in the form of stockbroking. This new vertical will supposedly play a critical role in Paytm’s long term quest to become a full-fledge wealth management and financial services company.
With the foray in stockbroking, Paytm Money will compete with emerging startups like Upstox and Zerodha. Paytm Money’s full time director Pravin Jadhav while recently speaking to business daily Business Standard dropped the hint that it will aggressively go after small retail investors that usually fall under middle income and low middle-income groups.
Interestingly, it was Jadhav who has been eventually replaced by Sridhar with the former having played a critical role in building Paytm Money. At one point, Jadhav was considered as one of the close confidants of Sharma but his differences of opinion over policy matters with the management reportedly led to his departure.
In another interesting development, Paytm will also soon foray into Insurance space as soon as its recent acquisition of Raheja QBE gets approval from IRDAI. Last month, Paytm acquired 100% stake in Raheja QBE for approximately Rs 568 crore.
Paytm already sells third party insurance products on its platform but with IRDAI license it can design its own insurance products and sell them on its platform.