Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm, talks about building financial services for India's 1.4 billion people through digital technology. He discusses Paytm's shift toward becoming a full bank, using data to extend credit to underserved customers, and why Indian entrepreneurs should bet on the country's smartphone adoption.
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Hi Vijay, this is Utkarsh. We are live from Davos. Yes, who are you?
Hi, I'm Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Founder, CEO of PAYTM and now a member of Network Capital. Great.
What's your vision for financially inclusive India and what are you doing towards that?
Well, I believe that if financial services like banking, payments, deposits, loans, all sorts of services can reach every nook and corner of the country. People who've been underserved or unserved also can have access to the financial services like you and I have. They'll be the country which will be better, powerful and stronger. And that is I believe at PAYTM we are trying to make this country proud with great.
How are you trying to innovate? Every day they say that the fourth industrial revolution is here. How are you trying to live up with the times?
Well, I think look, India for the first time have a revolution which is directly beneficial, beneficing us as a country. And that is the fourth industrial revolution of having the Internet in every hand. Because India for the first time have consumer base of hundreds of millions of customers. So technology entrepreneurs like you and like me can build services for this country. And that's exactly how we think that if this person who's not having a connectivity today, if like an auto rickshaw driver, if he gets Internet connection, what all services he will need. And can we offer those services or not? So the thinking of this common man, thinking of this last person in this value chain, how will be able to benefit that person using Internet connectivity? And is the leveraging of fourth revolution talking about that?
Super. Super. So recently you know, you became a full fledged bank.
We are becoming a full fledged bank.
Full fledged bank. So what's your vision for that? What's the role of data and analytics?
Yes. So you know, as a bank today when you use PAYTM wallet, the money that is kept there does not earn interest. When we become a bank, we connect a bank account. So you do not need an obligatory. But in case you opt for that, the money you can move quickly to the PAYTM Payment bank account and they'll earn interest also. So that is the beauty about PAYTM Payment bank that will happen. And now with the power of data analytics and the transaction data that you do on the platform, we can help you get loans and credit cards or credit, consumer credit. And a shopkeeper, because of you, paying them in digital format can take this small loan 10,000 rupees, 1 lakh rupee, 2 lakh rupees for. For themselves at a much lower cost. And otherwise it Was not available. So I think the data analytics will be the critical component. Once we generate this, all the data to convert people into a viable capable credit.
Super, super changing course. I mean Network capital essentially attempts to find out people with complementary skills and have them mentor each other. Can you talk about your like, what have been the role of mentors in your life and how have you gained from that?
So lucky are those who get a mentor whom they can trust and the mentor does not have a selfish interest that gives you clean and complete independent, true support. I instantly got my mentor in none other than my investor Ravi Adusumali of SAF Partners. Surprisingly, he's not just a mentor. I treat him as a co founder. He helped me when I should raise money, when I should spend money, how much money should I spend, how should I hire to every other kind of question whom I did not know to ask for. Mentors are the people whom you can ask the question whom you cannot ask your team this question or family this question or this crisis question that you don't know whom to ask. So mentors are like the backbone of a body whom we do not know. We nearly take them for granted, but we stand tall on board.
That's great because I know for a fact that in paytm you encourage a very open culture. I know that you know there's an employee mentorship program as well. So what is your vision for that? How's that turned out?
Well, I believe that if an entrepreneur exists in our company as a company will be very benefited if that person gets to do what the dream they have. So in company we totally promote people to do new things by the way, so that you know, 197 communication had a team which was building a payment platform that is called PayTM. So PayTM is our output of such entrepreneurs who are working in my company. So just see the example of that product. So we are so smitten by that our categories like flight, travel, cinema, all these have come out of these internal entrepreneurs whom we have who sort of leverage this and power and capability and the organization assets and then they build it so incredibly well. Great.
Finally, what advice do you have to give for our generations? People say that India missed the first, second and third industrial revolution. So what's your vision? How can we embrace the fourth industrial revolution fully?
My friend, this is the time for India. This is the time when India finally has the target customer base. Previous to our generation, previous to your generation, people had to find customers internationally. So so hcl, wipro, tcs, Infosys, got created because the technology that we produced as Indians was to be used by people who were outside. But today, you don't need to think about it. Today's India is powerful. Today, India is available for you as a customer. Today's India has a smartphone. Today India has a phone. Today India has a customer with an Internet connection. So today is opportunity, unlike ever before, that is available to you, my friend, to unleash the popularity and the systems and the technology and the app that you build, which not only serve a common citizen in our country, but also can become a world opportunity. Build something, my friend, for this country. And I truly believe that will become a world class soon. And then you will go global with that product. Right.
So, I mean, is that the similar vision for paytm?
That's exactly what we believe. We are building it for this country and hopefully we can one day take this to rest of the world and make this country prouder.
No, absolutely. At Davos, you have your meeting with a whole bunch of international leaders. And I can tell you for a fact, each panel that I've gone to, India is at the central center of their attention. And invariably demonetization comes up, invariably the name of paytm.
Well, I don't think that we could have ever believed that our customers will love us so much. Thank you so much, everyone. And I truly owe it to every Indian consumer, every Indian who inspired us to build this. And we will not stop at this because this is just a start.
I completely agree. Yeah. Thank you again. Thanks, everyone. So we are here.
