350 Paytm employees set to become millionaires after IPO launch

A general view of Paytm's office

Nearly 350 former and current employees of digital payments and financial services platform Paytm are set to become millionaires, thanks to the company’s $2.5 billion IPO.

Each of these Paytm employees will now have a net worth of at least Rs 1 crore, according to a Reuters report.

Notably, with the Rs 18,300-crore share sale, the Paytm IPO has become the largest fintech IPO in the Asia Pacific region.

Also read: Paytm IPO | Why some fund houses invested, while several others stayed away

Electronics engineer Siddharth Pandey, who had joined Paytm nine years ago, much to his father’s objection, is among those who are set to become millionaires after the company lists next week.

At that time, Paytm was a small payments company with less than 1,000 employees.

Recalling his conversation with his father in 2013, he said: “My dad was very demotivating. He said, ‘What is this Paytime?!’ 'For once work in a company people know about'.”

“Now he (my father) is obviously very happy. He has just asked me to stay grounded.”

Although Pandey, 39, no longer works for Paytm (he has joined another start-up), he said that in the seven years he was with the company, he had accumulated tens of thousands of shares.

Those shares were priced at Rs 2,150 apiece on November 12, which means, he would be worth over $1 million soon.

Speaking fondly of the company’s founder, Pandey said: “Paytm has always been a generous paymaster. Vijay (Sharma, the Paytm founder) has always wanted that people make money, they move up in life.”