MOST CREATIVE
PEOPLE 2017 Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Founder and CEO, Paytm
For
rescuing India's small businesses
Vijay Shekhar Sharma launched Delhi-based digital-payments
app Paytm in 2010 and then spent years trying to convince reluctant Indian
merchants to give it a try. Customers tended to prefer cash, however, and
while Paytm evolved into India’s leading digital wallet, growth remained
slow. Then, in November 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dropped a
bombshell: To reduce corruption, he was scrapping the country’s most
common bills, effective immediately. Cash transactions were
suddenly difficult, and Paytm represented a solution. Sharma quickly
launched a national advertising campaign, and consumers themselves
often made the case to vendors. In a matter of weeks, Paytm added 3 million
merchants, quadrupling the company’s reach. In February 2017, Paytm’s parent
company, One97 Communications, raised an additional $200 million to fund
broader e-commerce efforts, with Alibaba leading the round. Sharma, meanwhile,
has been transformed from an idiosyncratic entrepreneur to something of
a national hero. He has seen a video of Indian schoolchildren singing about
Paytm, and a photograph of a rural merchant who had drawn a poster of the Paytm
logo by hand. “Wow, this brand has reached everyone,” says the CEO. “I felt
proud.”
https://www.fastcompany.com/person/vijay-shekhar-sharma
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