Paytm records 20% rise in monthly users in July-August, GMV up 43%

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₹5,517 crore ($667 million) through its lending platform, the company said in a press release. The company's merchant payment volumes (GMV) increased by 43% year-on-year to ₹3 trillion ($36.3 billion) in July-August 2023, up from ₹2.1 trillion in July-August 2022. Paytm continued to see an increase in GMV of non-UPI instruments like EMI and cards, said the release.

The company's loan distribution business (in partnership with lender partners) increased 137% year-on-year, with disbursements of ₹10,710 crore ($1.3 billion) in July-August 2023, The number of loans also increased 47% year-on-year to 8.8 million in July-August 2023. The company deployed 8.7 million devices as of August 2023, an increase of 4.2 million devices year-on-year. “With our subscription-as-a-service model, the strong adoption of devices drives subscription revenues and higher payment volumes, while increasing the funnel for our merchant loan distribution," said the company.

Paytm said that over the past several quarters, it planned to calibrate growth to further tighten credit quality of loans distributed on its platform. The company has been able to successfully demonstrate improving credit quality for Paytm Postpaid, where the ECL (expected credit loss) has reduced to a range of 0.65% - 0.85% from a range of 0.75% - 1.00% in Q4 of FY23. The company said it remains focused on the portfolio performance of its lending partners, and growth may be subdued until the industry outlook improves.

High quality outcomes for Paytm's partners will enable the company to expand lending partnerships. Paytm currently has eight lending partners (including for credit card distribution) and aims to onboard three-four partners in FY24. Shares of Paytm closed 2.85%