Paytm Aims for $1 Billion in Transactions by March 2015; Plans to Raise $150 Million in Funding

Mobile commerce firm Paytm is aiming to clock $1 billion (approximately Rs. 6.15 crores) gross merchandise value (GMV) by March next year on the back of growing smartphone penetration and rising number of customers buying from e-commerce sites.

"We believe by the end of current fiscal, we should be crossing $1 billion GMV," Paytm Chairman and Managing Director Vijay Shekhar Sharma told PTI.

He said growth drivers for the company are smartphone and Internet penetration, besides rising number of consumers opting for purchases from online shops.

The company has already crossed $600 million (approximately Rs. 3690 crores) GMV.

The company, which started by offering mobile recharge and utility bill payments, now offers a full marketplace to consumers on its mobile application.

The company, however, still gets 80 percent of its business from recharge and bill payments and the rest 20 percent comes from off selling.

Paytm is also raising $150 million (approximately Rs. 922 crores) to fund its growth plans which include increasing the employee strength to 3,600 by the end of next year.

"We have offers that have gone upto $250 million (approximately Rs. 1537 crores)...we still believe that our business model requires $150 million. So, right now we are raising $150 million," Sharma said.

He said the company plans to have 1 million merchants in the next two years and also add 2,000 employees by December 2015. The firm currently has 1,600 employees. Paytm has a user base of 22 million which include 15 million mobile wallet customers. It plans to increase the user base to 26 million by the end of this year.

According to industry body IAMAI, the digital commerce market stood at Rs. 47,349 crore by the end of 2012 and at the end of December 2013, it grew to Rs. 62,967 crore.

As per a Boston Consulting Group report, at present, about 45 percent of online consumers in India use only their mobile devices to access the Internet and this is expected to rise to 60 percent over the next three years.