Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma resigns from company’s financial services business

Founder of digital payments major Paytm Vijay Shekhar Sharma has resigned as the Director of Paytm Financial Services as of December 2, company filings, accessed by YourStory, showed.

The declaration was made to the company’s board of directors on December 2. In a letter, the founder had cited ‘other pre-occupations’ as a reason for his resignation. 

Replacing him is Rohit Lohia, who is currently Vice President of Paytm’s lending business and came on board the financial services company in July this year.

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“I hereby tender my resignation as Director of the Company with immediate effect due to other pre-occupations. Kindly acknowledge my receipt and take necessary steps to complete requisite filing in this regard with the office of Registrar of Companies, NCT of Delhi and Haryana,” the letter read.   

Prior to joining Paytm, Rohit was the Chief Digital Officer at credit-based SME lending marketplace CoinTribe, which is backed by Sabre Partners. The IIM Bengaluru graduate also founded IndiaInMyBag, a ecommerce marketplace showcasing Indian traditional crafts, in 2013. 

In the last week of November, Paytm’s parent company, One97 Communications, raked in $1 billion as part of a fresh equity fundraise led by T Rowe Price Associates Inc.

Existing investors Ant Financial, Softbank Vision Fund, and Discovery Capital also participated in this round. The funding, which valued the group at $16 billion, was raised to focus on financial inclusion and bringing newer financial products to customers.

In this regard, the company had then stated that it is looking to invest Rs 10,000 crores (about $1.3 billion at current exchange rate) over the next three years to bring financial inclusion to the more underserved users in the country.

(Edited by Athirupa Geetha Manichandar)

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