Paytm counts costs of regulatory clampdown as losses swell | TechCrunch

One 97 Communications, the parent company of India’s leading digital payments platform Paytm, widened its consolidated net loss to $66.1 million in the quarter ending March, compared to a loss of $20.11 million in the same quarter last year as it grappled with a regulatory clampdown.

For the full fiscal year 2024, Paytm’s consolidated net loss stood at $170 million, down from $213 million in FY23. The Noida-headquartered company’s revenue from operations grew 25% year-on-year to $1.19 billion in FY24, though increased expenses across payment processing charges, marketing, employee benefits and software cloud costs weighed on its bottom line.

Its consolidated revenue from operations fell to $272.3 million in the January-March quarter.

A major blow to Paytm during the quarter was a loss of $27.2 million on impairment of its investment in associate company Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL). This followed restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank of India on PPBL’s operations in January, effectively permitting only withdrawal of existing customer balances. Paytm subsequently terminated its major business activities with PPBL and fully impaired its investment value.

It still had about $513.8 million in the bank at the end of March 31.

More to follow.