Paytm names Amit Sinha as COO of Paytm Mall

Paytm Mall, the e-commerce company of One97 Communications, has appointed group veteran Amit Sinha as Chief Operating Officer in an effort to further strengthen itself to take on rivals like Amazon India and Flipkart.

Sinha, who is currently a vice-president overlooking business and human resources at Paytm’s holding company One97 Communications, began his journey with Paytm since December 2007 and served in several key business roles.

According to company sources, Sinha will be responsible for overall operations, category management, hiring and logistics. Sinha, an MBA from Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta with an engineering degree from Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad.

Commenting on his appointment, Sinha said Paytm Mall goal is to build the country’s largest platform that enables trusted partners including brand and merchants in growing their business.

“We are innovating on multiple aspects of business and offering newer business opportunities for sellers. Paytm Mall also aims to be the preferred destination for consumers looking for the largest selection of products being sold by trusted sellers,” he said.

Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said Paytm Mall will address a unique opportunity of giving small businesses and retailers access to mobile internet technology to address India's large mobile consumer base.

“Amit’s experience in building various businesses since their inception makes him our best choice to lead our commerce business,” he said.

As part of its restructuring strategy, Paytm de-merged last year its three-year-old e-commerce business into a separate unit—Paytm Mall, under the legal entity Paytm E-Commerce Pvt Ltd. The company launched a dedicated online portal and mobile app for Paytm Mall on 27 February.  Alibaba Group, Alipay, SAIF Partners and Sharma are the shareholders of the company.

Paytm was launched in August 2010 as an online recharge and bill payment platform and soon expanded into online commerce and mobile payments through wallets.  Paytm is currently the largest digital wallet with over 220 million users and is accepted by over 5 million offline merchants across India.