Paytm from Idea to IPO

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2021-06-05 06:30:05

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Ten years ago, the idea of the pivot was popularised by Eric Ries through his book, The Lean Startup. Ries recognised that startups frequently need to shift strategy before they find success. In some cases, the capacity to pivot is retained inside a company’s DNA as it grows, helping the company to evolve with changing conditions. A good example of this is Netflix, whose founder wrote his own book on the subject, No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention.

I don’t know whether he’s read either of these books, but Vijay Shekhar Sharma reflects these ideas in his company, Paytm and its holding company, One97. His company is now over twenty years old, but it has shifted direction multiple times – from phone services to marketing to mobile phone top-ups to payments to e-commerce to full-scale financial services. Along the way, it’s attracted funding from Ant Group, Softbank and Warren Buffett. Today, Paytm is the largest fintech in India, readying itself for an IPO, expected to launch over the next few months.