Indian e-wallet firm Paytm's parent, One97 Communication saw its revenue grew to Rs 829 crore for the financial year 2017, up from Rs 598 crore in the year before, even as its losses narrowed for the same period.

Last year, Paytm's parent split into two separate entities -- Paytm Payments Bank and Paytm E-commerce -- to comply with RBI’s regulatory requirements and transferred its primary wallet business to its bank. Paytm E-commerce had paid Rs 620 crore to One97 as part of the transfer of assets which has helped the parent reduce losses.

As Paytm benefited from the restructuring, the parent firm trimmed its losses to Rs 900 crore from Rs 1,497 crore, in the financial year 2015-16, as per filings made with Ministry of Corporate Affiars, said the TOI report citing filings sourced from Paper.vc.

Moreover, Paytm also managed to reduce its expenses by 14% from the previous financial year to Rs 1,775 crore as it cut its marketing costs by 30% for the same period. Its parent firm One97 also halved its employee benefits to Rs 143 crore from Rs 334 crore.

For financial year 2016-17, Paytm Payment Bank reported a loss of Rs 30 crore even as its e-commerce entity saw its losses trim to Rs 229 crore from Rs 318 crore the previous year. The company said because of its transfer of physical goods, online marketplace to Paytm e-commerce through business transfer agreement with effect from March 28, 2017, the loss of Rs 229 crore has been shown separately as loss from discontinued business in its filing.

Paytm's founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma's annual salary remains relatively unchanged. Filings for 2016-17, show he was drawing about Rs 3 crore, at par with his salary in 2015-16. The year before, he was drawing Rs 2.3 crore annually.

Paytm, one of the biggest spenders on marketing and advertising in the online payments space, has been on a customer acquisition drive with its new payments bank and hopes to cash in on the government's push for a digital India. With the company set to invest as much as Rs 5,000 crore in its payment bank in the next three years to enhance payment facilities for customers, Paytm has said it stands to gain from the surge in UPI and IMPS transactions. According to an earlier filing, the company plans to become operationally profitable by financial year 2019, as per a valuation paper commissioned by Paytm and prepared by Deloitte Haskins and Sells.

In July 2015, One97 Communications, the firm that owns the brand Paytm, acquired the title sponsorship rights for India's domestic and international cricket matches at home for a period of four years starting in August 2015.

In August 2015, Paytm received a license from Reserve Bank of India to launch a payments bank. The Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma hold 51% share in Paytm Payments Bank while One97 Communications holds 39% and 10% held by a subsidiary of One97 and Sharma.
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