Vijay Shekhar Sharma: Looking Beyond the Disappointment

Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma has crossed the first big hurdle of public listing, but with a 37 per cent loss at debut for shareholders. However, the market is willing to wait for the company's shift from a low-margin payments business to lending and wealth management. Sharma is already scaling up Paytm's buy-now-pay-later offering, personal and merchant loans, and the credit card business. At some stage in the future, the 43-year-old will need a full-scale banking licence to raise low-cost funds and earn high yields in the lending business. The road to profitability is still some distance away.