Paytm’s Loan Disbursals Up 103% YoY To 38.65 Lakh In Jan 2023, Average MTU Rises 29%

Paytm’s loan distribution business continued to grow in scale as the fintech giant disbursed 38.65 Lakh loans worth INR 3,928 Cr in the first month of 2023. The Noida-based company said that the value and the number of loans disbursed in January 2023 rose 327% and 103% year-on-year (YoY), respectively. 

In the December quarter of 2022, the number of loans disbursed by the company had surged 137% while the value of loans disbursed soared 357%.

In its monthly operational report, Paytm said that its payments consumer and merchant base offer a ‘large addressable market’ and it continues to remain focused on the quality of the book.

On the other hand, merchant payments volume also saw consistent growth. In January 2023, the total merchant gross merchandise volume (GMV) rose 44% to INR 1.2 lakh Cr from INR 83,000 Cr in January 2022. 

In Q3 FY23, Paytm’s merchant GMV rose 38% to INR 3.46 Lakh Cr from INR 2.5 Lakh Cr in the year-ago quarter. Adding to this, the fintech giant also said that it continues to focus on payment volumes that generate profitability via net payments margin or from direct upsell potential.

Meanwhile, the platform continued to see robust growth in its average monthly transacting users (MTU). The company said that its average MTU in January 2023 stood at 8.9 Cr, up 29% YoY.

In the quarter ended December 2022, average MTU stood at 8.5 Cr compared to 6.4 Cr in Q3 FY22. 

On similar lines, deployment of payment devices also continued to see an upswing. Paytm accounted for 61 Lakh merchants who paid subscription for its payment devices, including soundboxes. Device deployments grew by more than 38 Lakh YoY to current levels. 

From 20 Lakh devices deployed at the end of Q3 FY22, the number surged to 58 lakh at the end of Q3 FY23. 

“With our subscription as a service model, the strong adoption of devices drives subscription revenues and higher payment volumes, while increasing the funnel for our merchant loan distribution,” added Paytm in its monthly report.

Last week, Paytm reported its Q3 results and said that it achieved adjusted EBITDA profitability during the quarter, three quarters ahead of its estimates. The fintech company halved its net loss YoY to INR 392 Cr, while revenue from operations surged 41% to INR 2,062 Cr. 

Since then, the company’s shares have been on an upward trend. On Wednesday, Paytm shares surged 15% to INR 677.60 on the BSE.

Meanwhile, brokerage firm Macquarie also upgraded the Paytm stock two notches from ‘underperform’ to ‘outperform’ on Wednesday.

In a report, Macquarie said that the fintech player ‘positively surprised’ on the distribution of financial services revenue by a wide margin and by managing to control overall expenses and charges.