Paytm has $260 mn in the bank, will reduce losses to $350-400 mn; Zomato co-founder Chaddah to enter mental fitness space

Paytm CEO said the digital payments platform is looking at $0.5 trillion GTV. Chaddah is planning a fitness chain called Mindhouse.

Paytm looks at half a trillion dollars GTV

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, chief executive officer of digital payments platform Paytm, said the Noida-headquartered unicorn has $260 million in the bank and is looking at half a trillion dollars in gross transaction value or GTV.

He also ruled out the possibility of an immediate fundraise.

The company will bring down its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, debt, and amortisation) losses by at least a third to $350-400 million in this financial year, The Economic Times had reported earlier in the day.

One97 Communications, which operates Paytm, has cut marketing spends on incentivising peer-to-peer transactions (P2P) while completing heavy investment cycles in digital commerce businesses like movies and travel ticketing, said another report by The Times of India.

The mobile payments and commerce major’s EBITDA losses had tripled to $600 million in FY19, the TOI report added.

Zomato co-founder Chaddah to enter mental fitness space 

Zomato co-founder Pankaj Chaddah has been working on settling up a chain of a mental fitness studio, along with his wife Pooja Khanna.

Chaddah’s venture would likely be named Mindhouse, Entrackr reported citing sources.

“Chaddah has set up a team of about a dozen people and hiring aggressively across several functions. Mindhouse will have its first fitness studio on Golf Course Road, Gurugram by the next month,” Entrackr reported the sources as saying.

The company’s target audience will be working professionals with the objective of relaxation, reducing stress and improving concentration, found the online news website through an independently verified job posting by Mindhouse.

Chaddah left Zomato in March 2018 after completing a decade at the food delivery major.

Lendingkart appoints Mithun Sundar as CEO for NBFC arm

Fintech startup Lendingkart has appointed Mithun Sundar as the chief executive officer of its non-banking finance company arm called Lendingkart Finance, the company announced in a statement Friday.

In his new role, Mithun will drive growth and access to working capital for MSMEs across the Lendingkart platform, the statement added.

An alumnus of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Sundar has over 15 years of experience across companies like PepsiCo, McKinsey and Unilever.

He will be joining Lendingkart from Myntra.com where he held the position of chief marketing and revenue officer.