Paytm Losses Widen To INR 778 Cr, Revenue Jumps 89% In Q3 FY22

One97 Communications Limited which operates the digital payment’s platform Paytm has posted a revenue of INR 1,456 Cr  from operations in the quarter ending in December 2021, i.e. Q3 FY22.

This is almost a 34% rise from INR 1,086 Cr the company earned during July – September of 2021 and an 88.6% rise from INR 772 Cr it clocked during the same period in FY21. 

Paytm witnessed an income of INR 77.3 Cr from its “Other” sources, thus taking the total income of the two-decade old company to INR 1,533.4 Cr in Q3 of FY22. 

Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led fintech giant has seen its expense rise by 44.8% on a QoQ basis. In Q3 of FY22, Paytm’s total expenditure stood at INR 2,317.4 Cr. In Q2 of FY22, the Noida-based company’s expenditure was INR 1,599 Cr. In terms of YoY, the fintech giant spent INR 1,348 Cr in Q3 of FY21. 

The company’s employee benefits expense which mainly comprises wages, gratuity and ESOP expenses rose to INR 831.3 Cr in the last quarter. This is almost a 2X rise from the previous quarter during which it spent INR 386.5 Cr, and a 2.4X increase from INR 337 Cr it witnessed in Q3 of FY21. 

The company’s loss during Q3 of FY22 was pegged at INR 778.5 Cr, a 64% increase from INR 473.5 Cr it recorded in Q2 of FY22. This is also a 47% rise from INR 535.5 Cr it saw in Q3 of FY21. 

In the nine-month of FY22 which started from April 2021, the fintech giant’s loss after tax stood at INR 1,633.9 Cr. 

The company claimed its contribution profit which it defines as revenue from operation excluding payment processing charges, promotional cashback, incentives, and other direct costs stood at INR 454 Cr. 

Paytm also witnessed its average monthly transacting users has grown by 37% on a YoY basis to 64.4 Mn in Q3 of FY22. 

Its merchant payment GMV was pegged at INR 2.5 lakh crore, a 123% YoY growth. The company earned INR 406 Cr from payments made by consumers on the Paytm app, INR 586 Cr from processing payments in merchant store/app/website and INR 339 Cr from enabling commerce for merchants. 

During the same quarter, its lending business disbursed 4.4 Mn of loans to the tune of INR 2,181 Cr. While its BNPL business disbursed loans of INR 1,190 Cr, a 408% YoY rise, its instant personal loan disbursed loans worth INR 516 Cr, a 1,925% rise. Merchant cash advanced loans worth INR 474 Cr were disbursed. 

In terms of offline payments, the company has deployed 2 Mn payment devices in Q3 of FY22. In Q2 of FY22 the company had deployed 1.3 Mn devices, whereas in Q3 of FY21, the number stood at 0.6 Mn. The number of merchants onboarded during the period was 24.9 Mn. In Q2 of FY22, Paytm had onboarded 23 Mn merchants.

On February 4, Paytm’s share price stood at INR 952.90 on both NSE and BSE, when the markets closed. Paytm in November of 2021 went for INR 18,300 Cr IPO with a price of INR 2,080 – INR 2,150.