Paytm Appoints Ramana Kumar As CEO For Middle East Business

Fintech major Paytm has roped in UAE-based payments company Magnati’s founding CEO Ramana Kumar as the CEO of its Middle East business.

In a statement, the company said that Kumar will lead its expansion in the UAE and the broader Middle East market. Paytm said the appointment marks a key step in its international market expansion.

“We welcome Ramana, who has built a formidable merchant payments business in the UAE. We aim to serve the region by building and bringing strong regional leadership, backed by our proven technology,” Paytm’s founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. 

The appointment comes weeks after Paytm’s arm Paytm Cloud Technologies Ltd (PCTL) incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary in the UAE, Paytm Arab Payments LLC. Primarily, Paytm Arab Payments operates as a B2B digital payment solutions provider while also providing tailored financial services to consumers. Paytm Cloud Technologies also invested $2.1 Mn in the subsidiary.

Prior to this, the newly appointed CEO was helming payment solutions company Magnati since its inception in 2021. Magnati is the payments arm of the UAE’s largest bank First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB). It works primarily with government, merchant and institutional clients. Kumar, an alumnus of IIT-Kanpur, headed the payments and digital business of FAB for about four years prior to taking up the CEO role at Magnati. 

Prior to his stint at FAB, Kumar had a six-and-a-half year stint with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, leaving the bank in 2017 from the post of MD and head of global transaction banking.

“The region is rapidly adopting digital payments, and there’s a strong demand for innovative, secure, and scalable solutions. Paytm’s technology, built and refined in India, is well-suited to meet these needs. We (Paytm) will work closely with regulators and ecosystem partners to introduce impactful innovations and strengthen the digital payments landscape,” Kumar said on his new role.

Paytm’s International Plans

In January 2025, the board of PCTL approved the incorporation of the three new subsidiaries in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore.

This came on the back of Paytm introducing UPI International, allowing Indian users travelling abroad to countries like the UAE, Singapore, France, Mauritius, Bhutan and Nepal make UPI payments.

Paytm will focus on the B2B model and partner local players to provide technology solutions under its international expansion plans. During the earnings call for Q4, Sharma said that Paytm’s international expansion will be the key focus in FY25. 

“Internationalisation is not about launching the Paytm app in other markets. It’s about helping local players build their own solutions using our tech,” he added. 

Due to rapid digital payment growth, booming ecommerce and a tech-savvy demographic, the UAE is an attractive market to Paytm. As per Statista, the country’s digital payments market is expected to reach a size of around $118 Bn by 2030.

Paytm Close To Profitability 

With the international expansion, Paytm is looking to further grow its revenue stream as it reaches closer to profitability.

While the company reported a net loss of INR 544.6 Cr in Q4 FY25, its bottom line was impacted significantly due to an exceptional item loss of INR 522 Cr. Excluding the exceptional items, the company was able to trim its loss to INR 19.9 Cr in the March quarter, a giant leap from the INR 550.5 Cr loss it posted in the year-ago quarter.

Meanwhile, Paytm’s operating revenue for the quarter under review dipped 19% YoY to INR 1,911.5 Cr from INR 2,267.1 Cr in Q4 FY24. Sequentially, this marked a 5% increase from INR 1,827.8 Cr.

The exceptional item loss in Q4 FY25 included INR 492.4 Cr in non-cash accelerated charge due to Sharma surrendering 2.1 Cr ESOPs following a SEBI show-cause notice.

The company officially settled the case with the regulator on May 8 by paying a penalty of INR 1.1 Cr to the regulator as well as cancelling the stock options granted to Sharma and his brother and CBO-marketing cloud business Ajay Shekhar Sharma. 

Sharma expects Paytm to turn profitable in Q1 FY26. Besides international expansion, Paytm plans to double down on its payments business and scale down its lending business in FY25. 

Shares of Paytm ended today’s trading session 1.54% lower at INR 829.25 apiece on the BSE.