<p>New Delhi: Fintech firm One97 Communications, which owns the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/paytm">Paytm </a>brand, reported its first-ever consolidated net profit at Rs 122.5 crore in the quarter ended June 2025, mainly on account of cost optimisation and an increase in payment revenue.</p><p>Paytm had posted a net loss of Rs 840 crore in the year-ago period.</p><p>"EBITDA and PAT turned profitable at Rs 72 crore and Rs 123 crore respectively, demonstrating AI-led operating leverage, disciplined cost structure and higher other income," Paytm said in a statement.</p><p>Paytm Founder and CEO <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/vijay-shekhar-sharma">Vijay Shekhar Sharma </a>said that the company has filtered out words related to adjustments under various heads.</p><p>"This is the first quarter where we have pruned out every word which included EBITDA (operational profit) before ESOP, PAT (profit after tax) before ESOP or anything before ESOP. Next quarter onward, we will stop giving the ESOP line. It will be only employee cost. We are maturing towards absolute complete employee cost, including EBITDA or PAT, where the ESOP cost is the cost of the management. No more adjusting anything," he said.</p>.<p>Paytm earlier issued profitability targets after complex adjustments.</p><p>The company slashed marketing and promotional expenses by more than half to Rs 99.8 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 221.4 crore a year ago and Rs 142.7 crore in the March 2025 quarter.</p><p>Paytm reduced employee benefits by about Rs 300 crore or one-third to about Rs 643 crore from Rs 952.5 crore on a year-over-year basis.</p><p>While the company's sales employee cost rose by 19 per cent on a YoY basis to Rs 266 crore, it recorded a reduction in non-sales employee cost by 28 per cent YoY to Rs 346 crore due to the use of artificial intelligence in various processes across its business.</p><p>Paytm's average number of sales employees increased by 23 per cent YoY basis to 38,945.</p><p>The consolidated revenue from operations in the reporting quarter increased by about 28 per cent to Rs 1,917.5 crore from Rs 1,501.6 crore in the June 2024 quarter mainly on account of an increase in payment processing margins.</p><p>"I do believe the payment channel is profitable and has operating leverage. I do believe payment standalone will be a bottom-line driver and a large bottom-line driver once these MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) sources show up. In fact, today we are calling breakeven and tomorrow we are calling a large profit," Sharma said.</p><p>In the first quarter of FY'25, payment services revenue (including other operating revenue) was up 23 per cent YoY at Rs 1,110 crore. Net payment revenue of Paytm was up 38 per cent YoY at Rs 529 crore due to an increase in payment processing margin and device.</p><p>Paytm reported 27 per cent YoY increase in gross merchandise value to Rs 5.39 lakh crore in the reported quarter.</p><p>The company said that merchant subscriptions were at an all-time high of 1.3 crore, an increase of 21 lakh YoY, on the back of high-quality devices and superior service network as of June 2025.</p>.Paytm shares drop 5% as Ant Group looks to shell equity in fintech giant.<p>Sharma said that Paytm has an edge over competitors as the company provides hardware and software developed in the form of soundbox and card swipe (EDC) machines to the merchants.</p><p>“Being a hardware, software and services full stack owner, we were able to build hardware where what is needed is added and what is not needed is removed. Other companies source hardware from China, do a capex deal and that's a big business. We don't call it a big business. We design our own hardware, we own our own software, we deliver our own services,” he said.</p><p>"To further strengthen tier-1 market position and expand in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, we are investing in expanding our sales network (sales people costs are up 19 per cent YoY)," the statement said.</p><p>During the reported quarter, Paytm said that average monthly transacting users (MTU) base reached 7.4 crore.</p><p>The company said that distribution of financial services revenue grew 100 per cent YoY to Rs 561 crore, driven by continued expansion in merchant loans, trail revenue from Default Loss Guarantee (DLG) portfolio, and improvement in asset quality.</p><p>Paytm reported an 88 per cent decline in ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) costs to Rs 30 crore from Rs 169 crore in the March quarter and Rs 247 crore a year ago.</p><p>The company had made ESOP cost-related adjustments in the March quarter when its CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma voluntarily surrendered his ESOPs.</p>
<p>New Delhi: Fintech firm One97 Communications, which owns the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/paytm">Paytm </a>brand, reported its first-ever consolidated net profit at Rs 122.5 crore in the quarter ended June 2025, mainly on account of cost optimisation and an increase in payment revenue.</p><p>Paytm had posted a net loss of Rs 840 crore in the year-ago period.</p><p>"EBITDA and PAT turned profitable at Rs 72 crore and Rs 123 crore respectively, demonstrating AI-led operating leverage, disciplined cost structure and higher other income," Paytm said in a statement.</p><p>Paytm Founder and CEO <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/vijay-shekhar-sharma">Vijay Shekhar Sharma </a>said that the company has filtered out words related to adjustments under various heads.</p><p>"This is the first quarter where we have pruned out every word which included EBITDA (operational profit) before ESOP, PAT (profit after tax) before ESOP or anything before ESOP. Next quarter onward, we will stop giving the ESOP line. It will be only employee cost. We are maturing towards absolute complete employee cost, including EBITDA or PAT, where the ESOP cost is the cost of the management. No more adjusting anything," he said.</p>.<p>Paytm earlier issued profitability targets after complex adjustments.</p><p>The company slashed marketing and promotional expenses by more than half to Rs 99.8 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 221.4 crore a year ago and Rs 142.7 crore in the March 2025 quarter.</p><p>Paytm reduced employee benefits by about Rs 300 crore or one-third to about Rs 643 crore from Rs 952.5 crore on a year-over-year basis.</p><p>While the company's sales employee cost rose by 19 per cent on a YoY basis to Rs 266 crore, it recorded a reduction in non-sales employee cost by 28 per cent YoY to Rs 346 crore due to the use of artificial intelligence in various processes across its business.</p><p>Paytm's average number of sales employees increased by 23 per cent YoY basis to 38,945.</p><p>The consolidated revenue from operations in the reporting quarter increased by about 28 per cent to Rs 1,917.5 crore from Rs 1,501.6 crore in the June 2024 quarter mainly on account of an increase in payment processing margins.</p><p>"I do believe the payment channel is profitable and has operating leverage. I do believe payment standalone will be a bottom-line driver and a large bottom-line driver once these MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) sources show up. In fact, today we are calling breakeven and tomorrow we are calling a large profit," Sharma said.</p><p>In the first quarter of FY'25, payment services revenue (including other operating revenue) was up 23 per cent YoY at Rs 1,110 crore. Net payment revenue of Paytm was up 38 per cent YoY at Rs 529 crore due to an increase in payment processing margin and device.</p><p>Paytm reported 27 per cent YoY increase in gross merchandise value to Rs 5.39 lakh crore in the reported quarter.</p><p>The company said that merchant subscriptions were at an all-time high of 1.3 crore, an increase of 21 lakh YoY, on the back of high-quality devices and superior service network as of June 2025.</p>.Paytm shares drop 5% as Ant Group looks to shell equity in fintech giant.<p>Sharma said that Paytm has an edge over competitors as the company provides hardware and software developed in the form of soundbox and card swipe (EDC) machines to the merchants.</p><p>“Being a hardware, software and services full stack owner, we were able to build hardware where what is needed is added and what is not needed is removed. Other companies source hardware from China, do a capex deal and that's a big business. We don't call it a big business. We design our own hardware, we own our own software, we deliver our own services,” he said.</p><p>"To further strengthen tier-1 market position and expand in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, we are investing in expanding our sales network (sales people costs are up 19 per cent YoY)," the statement said.</p><p>During the reported quarter, Paytm said that average monthly transacting users (MTU) base reached 7.4 crore.</p><p>The company said that distribution of financial services revenue grew 100 per cent YoY to Rs 561 crore, driven by continued expansion in merchant loans, trail revenue from Default Loss Guarantee (DLG) portfolio, and improvement in asset quality.</p><p>Paytm reported an 88 per cent decline in ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) costs to Rs 30 crore from Rs 169 crore in the March quarter and Rs 247 crore a year ago.</p><p>The company had made ESOP cost-related adjustments in the March quarter when its CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma voluntarily surrendered his ESOPs.</p>