Paytm Money launches F&O trading on the app

Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Image: WikiMedia Commons)

Online investments platform Paytm Money has launched futures and options (F&O) trading on its platform, the company announced through a virtual event January 13. The Bengaluru-headquartered company is offering all F&O trades at a flat rate of Rs 10, without any commitments, packages or contracts.

Speaking at the event, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said, with this feature, the company is hoping to increase its active users and has set a target of attaining an annual turnover of Rs 1.5 lakh crore and a million trades in the next two years.

F&O launch completes the entire gamut of services offered by the investment platform which started with direct mutual funds and then went on to add gold, stock trading, IPO options and even pension investments and exchange-traded funds.

“There are 20 to 25 million active investors in the country only, we at Paytm want to help drive this numbers towards 100 million, thereby helping drive financial inclusion,” said Sharma.

Currently, Paytm Money has 7 million users with an annual transaction volume of 10 million. The company has clients across 98 percent of all Indian pin codes and more than 50 percent of its users are first time into the investments business. The company has reported an average SIP of Rs 1500.

“We have tried to keep the interface extremely simple and intuitive, further with the use of technology Paytm has made execution of these trades very simple on the app,” said Varun Sridhar, chief executive officer, Paytm Money.

As of now the platform has opened this feature for the first 500 users who can test out the features and send feedback to the company. Sridhar said that in the next two weeks, Paytm will open the F&O feature for all its users.

Paytm Money, since inception has been trying to get its large user base to start investing their money going beyond only payments. Sharma pointed out that in India currently investing is not used by the general public since the processes involved are cumbersome.

Paytm Money has had a busy 2020 with multiple products launched back to back. The company which got a new CEO in Sridhar at the beginning of last year has seen its product suite expand quickly. It launched stockbroking for the public in August, exchange-traded funds in October, IPO investments in November.