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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
For Paytm, putting resources behind point-of-sale terminals is a waste of money and precious management bandwidth.
Editor's note: He says it just shy of thirteen minutes into the call. But it doesn’t come out straight or sudden. First he apologizes for being a bit harsh, maybe, he isn’t sure, and then after an awkward moment, he asks the question: “How much are they selling the machine for?” We’ve been chatting for that long, jumping from one question to another about the point-of-sale machine, or POS, business in India. And the person at the other end of the phone, a POS veteran of sorts who has been in the business enough number of years to distinguish the bad days from the worse, has been a bit impatient. Reticent, even. Founder of one of the largest POS companies in India, he requested not to be named because there are only a few private, non-banking players in the business, and he doesn’t want to come across as hostile. After tottering around questions on market size, the payments landscape, his company’s performance and the need for POS machines for small merchants, he’s finally asked me the price at which Paytm has launched …
The Rs 250 SIP was launched last year by the former SEBI chairperson with one clear goal: financial inclusion. More than a year later, the much-hyped scheme doesn’t seem to have caught on with MF investors.
Aggressive expansion, continued dependence on its parent for business, and an adverse shift in the product mix weigh on profitability as well as investor sentiment.
While the payments company saw its first full year of profitability in FY26, the real progress will depend on whether it can continue to prove that it’s more than a POS company.
