Two months after Paytm sank on its first trading day following India’s biggest initial public offering, an early investor remains confident in the digital payments startup expressing zero doubt about the company going “to be a very very valuable” firm even as others lose enthusiasm for the startup’s all-in-one app pitch.
Mukul Arora, who was recently elevated to co-managing partner at venture firm Elevation Capital, still believes Paytm founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the right man to lead the startup despite investor doubts over the company’s business model which looks increasingly less unique as rivals crop up.
"I can tell you that after meeting so many founders over the last 10-11 years, Vijay is by far the most visionary founder we have in India. And I know I'm making a very bold statement, but I have no ambiguity about that," Arora told Moneycontrol in an interview published today.
Paytm started out as a value added services firm for telecom companies in 2000, tacking on mobile payments after a decade before expanding to mobile wallets and becoming a fully fledged financial services player.
"In 2008 this guy knew Marc Andreessen (American entrepreneur) and what was happening in the US. I saw an interview of his (CNBC Young Turks) from 2008, and I was blown away. It was like a tech founder talking today. If anyone would have predicted those milestones, no one would have believed him," Arora said.
"His understanding of where the world is moving, big shifts happening, what consumers are going to want and as a founder and company what they need to do – I don't think anyone comes close in terms of foresight and vision. And I don't think there is any company in India which has gone through this kind of a transformational journey. So in the long run, I have zero doubt that Paytm is going to be a very very valuable company, " he added.
Elevation, then called SAIF Partners, was Paytm's first investor. At the time of Paytm going public, Elevation owned 18.6% of the startup which is a multi-billion dollar outcome for the venture firm despite the weak stock market debut with the shares being worth hundreds of times the investment.
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