Paytm Money, the financial services platform of Paytm will roll out its financial distribution and advisory business in two weeks, confirmed Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. He was speaking to Cafemutual on the sidelines of the second AMFI Mutual Fund Summit held yesterday in Mumbai.
Sharma told Cafemutual that close to 1000 users including Paytm employees have been using Paytm Money to see if the platform works seamlessly. In fact, he has given a demo of Paytm money app to this reporter on how investors can invest their money in mutual funds in just three clicks.
Sharma said that over 7.50 lakh investors have signed up on their app.
When asked about how the platform would make money, Sharma said that his company would neither charge a fee from investors nor sell regular plans to get commission. Instead, the company would offer value added services to generate revenue from their platform. He, however, said that he did not want to disclose these services at this moment.
During his address to delegates at the event, Sharma has assured mutual fund industry that his company would bring two crore new investors in the mutual fund industry within two years. He also said that his company would not compete with distributors; in fact, they will complement them.
One97 Communications, more popularly known as Paytm is backed by the Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba. It is pertinent to mention here that its promoter Alibaba followed a strategy of deploying the surplus funds of their sellers in liquid funds through their wealth advisory arm Ant Financials (then Alipay), which proved to be a big success. Later, the company expanded their distribution business by offering other mutual fund schemes and financial products.
Earlier in March, Paytm Money received SEBI’s approval to become an RIA.
