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We hosted a fireside chat with Mr. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO of Paytm, as a part of CEO Track at AGIC 2026. Please find below the key insights from the session:

Payments franchise: Trust, scale and digital adoption remain the core

Paytm believes the future of money is increasingly digital and mobile-led, with the bank account being the underlying infrastructure and the transaction itself at the center of the ecosystem. Fintech is acting as an enabler of this shift, particularly for small businesses, where India has developed a highly cost-efficient payments ecosystem. Trust remains central to the payments business, while increasing comfort with mobile transactions should continue to drive digital adoption. India’s payments architecture is also gaining recognition globally, with several markets looking to replicate India’s digital payments model.

MDR: A potential opportunity, while keeping small merchants protected

Paytm has built its payments business around a 0-MDR model and remains cognizant that UPI needs to stay free for users and small merchants. At the same time, Paytm sees scope for MDR to emerge selectively across the ecosystem, particularly for larger merchants. Given the size of India’s merchant base, even limited monetization across a meaningful portion could create a sizeable opportunity for payment providers. For Paytm, the opportunity lies in adding a new monetization layer to its already large merchant franchise without disturbing the economics that have driven widespread UPI adoption and helped Paytm maintain its leadership positioning.

Financial services: Growth outlook robust; postpaid re-gaining traction

Paytm intends to remain largely asset-light in financial services, focusing on distribution, technology and collections rather than building a lending book. Postpaid remains an important opportunity, with the product now being scaled up through banking partners following its earlier closure as the company took a more conservative approach. Transaction history, KYC framework and customer ageing provide Paytm a strong understanding of customer behavior, which can support better sourcing and collections compared with internet-led unsecured lending. The company sees technology-led distribution as the key to onboarding a wider set of lenders enabling it to scale up this business steadily over the coming years.

Regulatory approach: Greater focus on compliance

The company’s approach to regulation has evolved meaningfully. While fintechs earlier focused primarily on building technology and scaling products, Paytm now places greater emphasis on understanding the regulatory framework upfront and engaging with regulators early in the product cycle. Management believes this shift is important as fintechs become more embedded within financial services. Alongside compliance, sustainable free cash generation is increasingly being viewed as an equally important measure of a fintech’s maturity.

AI and technology: Moving toward the next computing cycle

Paytm expects AI to materially change how technology interacts with users, with computing moving from structured inputs and outputs toward systems capable of handling unstructured information. Mr. Sharma expects AI agents to become increasingly relevant in consumers’ daily lives over the next few years. For Paytm, this creates a broader opportunity to use its technology capabilities, customer understanding and transaction data to build new products and improve the way financial services are distributed and consumed.

Looking ahead: Expanding beyond payments into financial services

Paytm’s longer-term opportunity extends beyond payments, with the company seeking to build a broader financial-services platform around distribution, collections, technology and trust. Paytm believes fintechs have increasingly demonstrated the ability to combine technology with compliance and cash generation, while traditional financial institutions will need to adopt more technology-led models. Payments remain the core entry point, but the opportunity across MDR, merchant acquisition, Postpaid, partner-led lending and other financial services provides multiple avenues for Paytm to deepen monetization over time.

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