India’s Paytm slides over 10% to all-time low after lock-up interval expires • TechCrunch

Shares of Paytm slid over 10% Tuesday to an all-time low of 476 Indian rupees ($5.8) earlier than recovering barely after the lock-up interval for early backers of the Indian monetary providers agency ended final week.

The lock-up interval for the corporate’s earlier backers expired on November 15, liberating vital traders reminiscent of SoftBank Group and Alibaba to promote their shares. SoftBank bought shares value over $200 million final week. (Indian legislation requires pre-IPO traders to carry the shares post-listing for as much as one yr from the IPO.)

At 476 Indian rupees, Paytm’s shares are down over 77% from the IPO value of two,150 ($26.3). The corporate, which was valued at $16 billion in a personal spherical in 2016, at the moment has the market cap of $3.8 billion. Paytm raised greater than $6 billion throughout non-public rounds and IPO (together with secondary transactions).

Tech corporations have misplaced vital worth this yr because the market takes a downturn and reverses a lot of the good points from the earlier 13-year bull run. Paytm is amongst plenty of Indian startups that went public final yr. Zomato, PolicyBazaar, Nykaa and Delhivery — a number of the different startups which have gone public up to now two years — are all buying and selling significantly under their IPO costs.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founding father of Paytm, assured traders final week that the agency is working “on the proper path to profitability and free money flows.” He added: “Our journey to construct a scalable and worthwhile monetary providers enterprise has simply began.”

The erosion in Paytm’s shares may have a knock-on impact on the broader fintech startup ecosystem in India. PhonePe, a rival of Paytm, is making an attempt to lift a spherical from Common Atlantic and Walmart at a $12 billion valuation, in line with MoneyControl.

Sharma has stated the corporate is working to make Paytm hit $1 billion in annual income by the top of this fiscal yr in March.