Vijay Shekhar Sharma says if he didn't launch Paytm, he would have started this business

Vijay Shekhar Sharma was answering a question from a young founder in the audience at the Global Fintech Fest 2023, on Tuesday.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Tuesday said that if it wasn't for Paytm, he would have started an EV business.

The founder and CEO of Paytm was answering a question from a young founder in the audience at the Global Fintech Fest 2023. On being asked if he had to start over, which sector apart from fintech would he have chosen, Sharma said, "On this, I had a three-hour-long discussion with my friend Sachin Bansal when he was leaving Flipkart. I had told him to either do an electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem play or do a financial ecosystem play. That answer is valid even today and both of them are my bets till 2030 as well."

Vijay Shekhar Sharma added that he would like to see India champion electric vehicles and sustainability. “We can take a lead in electric mobility and become a global reference point,” the Economic Times quoted Sharma as saying.

Sharma has been vocal about his interest in electric vehicles. In November 2022, he had even caught up with Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal at the company's headquarters, congratulated the team, and said that their work is sure to make the country proud.

Inspiring is an understatement for what I saw today at Ola. Congratulations @bhash & team. I am sure you will make our country proud pic.twitter.com/QDjIexmqCG

Related Stories

• Is copper the new gold?
• Simple Energy looking to raise around $50 million, eyes capacity expansion ahead of 2027 IPO
• Transport ministry proposes Aadhaar-like number for EV batteries to improve traceability and recycli...

— Vijay Shekhar Sharma (@vijayshekhar) November 21, 2022

Earlier that month, Ola Electric showcased its S1 electric scooters at EICMA 2022 the Milan Motorcycle Shows is an annual trade show in Milan, Italy.

In August this year, Ola Electric unveiled a slew of EV two-wheelers at its 'End of ICE Age Event, Part I'.

Aggarwal noted during the event that the two-wheeler EV penetration market in India has expanded from less than 2 percent to around 20 percent over the past two years.

"Two years ago, nobody was thinking about EVs in India. There was scepticism about the EV market in the country. Today, the EV penetration in scooters is more than 20 percent in India," he said, thanking customers for pioneering the EV revolution in the country.

Read more: In China, it’s already cheaper to buy EVs than petrol cars