Paytm looks to bring 10m more merchants on board

BENGALURU: Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said the company is aiming to onboard 10 million new merchants, taking the total tally to 26 million by the end of the year as the mobile payments major continues to double down despite industry worries over zero merchant discount rate (MDR).

The SoftBank and Alibaba-backed company, valued at $16 billion, has ramped up its focus on merchant payments as it faces increased competition from Google Pay and PhonePe.

Sharma said the government’s move to bring zero merchant discount rate (MDR) and mandating digital payments for businesses with a turnover of Rs 50 crore would be a ‘force multiplier’ for digital payments.

“It (zero MDR) creates a massive demand in the market. It is a force multiplier for the growth of digital payments in the country. Government should continue to support people who are acquiring these merchants. Nobody says it is not good for merchants, everyone says we should be funded and we are saying that the government should support them (industry),” he said. Among the new initiatives for merchants, Paytm is also enabling invoice management, ledger services and business payments of large ticket sizes.

It unveiled its all-in-one low-cost android-based pointof-sale (POS) machines that will accept payments via QRcodes, Unified Payments Interface apps, cards, and even cash, on Tuesday.