Robust demand. Paytm’s loan disbursements grow by 148% in April; number of loans disbursed rises by 56% YoY

One97 Communications, which owns the Paytm brand, said that its loan disbursements grew 148 per cent in April 2023 at ₹4,115 crore (₹1,657 crore).

However, the latest loan disbursal amount was lower than the March 2023 disbursement level of ₹4,468 crore. 

The number of loans disbursed for the month under review grew 56 per cent year-on-year to 4.1 million, the same level as the previous month.

• Read: Paytm Q4 loss narrows sharply to ₹168 crore, revenue up 51%

“Our loan distribution business (in partnership with our lender partners) continues to witness healthy growth with total loans distributed through our platform for April 2023 growing 148 per cent year-on-year to ₹4,115 crore ($ 503 million)”, Paytm said in its operating performance update filed with the stock exchanges on Saturday.

“We continue to see growth in distribution of Postpaid and Personal Loans. In Merchant Loans, the demand continues to be robust, however due to a comprehensive technology systems upgrade by one of our lending partners, we had to temporarily pause merchant loan distribution through our platform for that partner”, Paytm update said.

While new loan distribution was largely unaffected given that the company has multiple partners, Paytm said upselling to existing merchants of that partner got impacted. 

“The system upgrade in now done and our partner has resumed disbursing merchant loans. While we continue to work with all our partners to service the robust demand of merchant loans, we believe, some impact of April could be felt in Q1 FY 2024 merchant loan growth”, Paytm said.

Paytm, which has partnered with large NBFCs and Banks, said it continues to focus on the quality of loans distributed through its platform. 

“We currently have 7 lending partners and we aim to onboard 3-4 partners in FY 2024”, it added.

GROSS MERCHANDISE VALUE 

The total merchant Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) processed through the Paytm platform for April 2023 stood at ₹1.27 lakh crore, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 34 per cent. 

The GMV (cumulative for the quarter) for the quarter ended March 2023 stood at ₹3.62 lakh crore, up 40% over ₹2.59 lakh crore in the same quarter in 2021-22. 

“Our focus over the past few quarters continues to be on payment volumes that generate profitability for us, either through net payments margin or from direct upsell potential”, Paytm said.

Paytm sees continued expansion of consumer engagement on the Paytm Super App with average monthly transacting users (MTU) for April 2023 growing 25 per cent year-on-year to 9.2 crore (7.4 crore).

Also the average MTU for the quarter ended March 2023 stood at 9 crore, up 27 per cent over the 7.1 crore in March 2022 quarter.

The number of merchants paying subscription for payment devices has reached 7.1 million, an increase of 3 lakh in the month of April 2023.

“With our subscription as a service model, the strong adoption of devices drives subscription revenues and higher payment volumes, while increasing the funnel for our merchant loan distribution”, Paytm said in its latest operating performance update. 

It maybe recalled that Paytm reported operating profitability in the December 2022 quarter, three quarters ahead of its earlier guidance of achieving this target by the September 2023 quarter.

On Friday, Paytm reported a significantly narrower net loss of ₹168 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2023 as compared to net loss of ₹ 761 crore in same quarter last year.