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Varun Sridhar, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, and Rakesh Singh
Paytm Money, the wealth management platform of One 97 Communications Ltd, has reportedly appointed Rakesh Singh as its new chief executive officer, replacing Varun Sridhar.
According to an ET report, Sridhar, who has been the CEO since 2020, will transition to a different role within the group. Singh, who was previously the CEO of broking services at Fisdom, joined Paytm Money last month.
Prior to Fisdom, Singh worked for financial services companies such as Standard Chartered, HDFC Securities, and ICICI Bank.
Company performance
Under Sridhar's leadership, Paytm Money achieved profitability, closing FY23 with a net profit of Rs 42.8 crore on revenue of Rs 132.8 crore.
The company, which competes with firms such as Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, Angel One, and ET Money, has been focusing on stock and mutual fund investments, particularly in direct mutual funds.
Despite becoming profitable, Paytm Money has lagged behind its rivals in the stockbroking domain, with 802,146 active trading clients as of March 31, compared to competitors like Groww, which has over 9.5 million clients.
Industry context
The digital wealth management segment has seen significant changes in leadership recently. Earlier this year, top executives from Kotak Cherry, the digital wealth management app run by Kotak Mahindra Bank, transitioned to Angel One. Additionally, Paytm Money's CFO, Vipul Mewada, was appointed in February.
Despite challenges, Paytm Money's parent company, One 97 Communications, sees potential in the wealth management platform.
During the quarterly earnings call in January, Bhavesh Gupta, president and chief operating officer, highlighted that Paytm Money could "become meaningful in the next 12 to 18 months as a part of Paytm's financial services revenue."
Leadership changes
In recent months, One 97 Communications and Paytm Payments Bank have undergone several top-level changes and exits. In April, Surinder Chawla, managing director and CEO of Paytm Payments Bank, stepped down, and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma resigned from the board amid an overhaul of the banking unit.
The company also saw the resignation of independent director Manju Agarwal and senior vice president Praveen Sharma.