Vijay Shekhar Sharma: Poster boy of Startups to Embattled Fintech CEO

Riches to regulation: Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of digital payments pioneer Paytm, is now better known for the run-in his listed company Paytm’s banking arm had with the Reserve Bank of India.

With humble beginnings in Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, the 46-year old is the third of four children. His father, Sulom Prakash was a school teacher while his mother Asha Sharma is a homemaker.

Having done his schooling from Harduaganj near Aligarh, Sharma went on to pursue engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering, which is now known as Delhi Technological University. 

Sharma founded One97 Communications in December 2000, which is the parent company of Paytm. The company started as a platform for mobile recharge and bill payments.

10 years later, he founded Noida-headquartered Paytm as a pioneer for digital payments, which became a household name due to the demonetisation in 2016 and later, the pandemic in 2020 for cashless payments amid the COVID outbreak.

Some of Paytm’s noted investors include Softbank and Jack Ma’s Ant Group, an affiliate company of Alibaba. Sharma counts Ma, and Softbank’s Mayoshi Son as his inspiration.

The company eventually went for a public listing in 2021, in one of the largest public offerings in the country - raising $2.5 billion at a valuation of $19 billion.

Sharma also launched the Paytm Payments Bank in 2019, as a digital bank which faces a clampdown by March 15 on the back of compliance issues.

Sharma has been vocal of the government’s push for digital India. Described as a strong believer in emerging technologies, Sharma has also invested in startups, mostly pioneered by technology.

The company on December 26 last year laid of 1,000 employees, due to ‘AI-powered transformation.’

Though much is not known about his personal life or interests, Sharma is very vocal on X, commenting and reposting on weather and sports, to posting a Grok AI reply on Ram Mandir inauguration a day ahead of the event on January 22. 

Sharma also posts actively on entrepreneurship, advancements in AI and technology. He participates in events around digital transformation, and Paytm was also mentioned by the Prime Minister in his radio show Mann ki Baat.

Paytm has had its share of controversies, with the public listing of Paytm having a disappointing stock market debut. Paytm was also delisted from Google Play over real-money gaming payments, after which it started an in-app feature for listing Android apps.

Sharma was also part of controversies around raising money from Chinese investors. After the Ant Group offloaded majority of its shares, Vijay Shekhar Sharma became the largest shareholder in Paytm at 19.42 per cent as of September last year.

He was arrested in 2022 in a case of rash driving, when he rammed his Jaguar Land Rover in the official vehicle of South Delhi's Deputy Commissioner of Police in New Delhi's Aurobindo Marg, but was later released on bail. 

Sharma was also in the news for accusing a company employee of extortion.