Leading payments and financial services company Paytm said it achieved a new milestone in merchant payments with 79 lakh devices deployed while the gross merchandise value (GMV) for the Q1 FY24 stood at Rs 4.05 lakh crore, a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 37 percent. Driving payment monetization, Paytm's subscription devices, Soundbox and PoS machines continue to see an increased acceptance by merchants. The company continues to remain the market leader in merchant payments with the number of merchants paying subscriptions for payment devices has reached 79 lakh as of June 2023, an increase of 4 lakh devices in the month and 11 lakh devices in the quarter that ended on June 30. 

Consumer engagement on the Paytm Super App remains high, with the average monthly transacting users (MTU) at 9.2 crores, a growth of 23 percent YoY.  With an eye on profitability, the company said, "Our focus over the past few quarters continues to be on payment volumes that generate profitability for us, either through net payments margin or from direct upsell potential." Paytm's credit distribution business, in partnership with large lenders, continues to witness robust growth with total disbursements for the quarter, surging 167 percent YoY to Rs 14,845 crore ($1.8 billion) with 1.28 crore loans (51 percent YoY growth) distributed. 

"Our focus remains on asset quality by continuously reviewing our partner's cohort data and tightening credit policy wherever needed proactively. This reflects in the growth of the value of loans distributed in the quarter," said the company. Paytm currently has seven active lending partners and it aims to onboard 3-4 partners this fiscal.  It announced its loan distribution partnership with Shriram Finance Limited on June 30.  The company also said that due to the earlier-mentioned system upgrade, the higher disbursals in June reflect the pent-up demand from April being met in May.  In the results of the last quarter of FY23, Paytm reported a 51 percent YoY growth in revenue from operations to Rs 2,334 crore, driven by growth in the payments and loan distribution business. The company reported an operating profit for the second straight quarter in Q4FY23. It reported EBITDA before ESOP cost of Rs 234 crore, including the full-year UPI incentive.