The loss of Paytm’s senior leadership had started off as a trickle, but it’s turned into a deluge.
Two of Paytm’s Chief Business Officers have resigned three days after President and COO Bhavesh Gupta had resigned, Moneycontrol reports. Ajay Vikram Singh, who was the Chief Business Officer (CBO) at Paytm’s UPI and User Growth division, and Bipin Kaul, who was the CBO of Offline Payments, have both resigned. Paytm confirmed the exit of the two leaders, saying that the company is undergoing a restructuring initiative and these changes are part of its approach to strengthen the firm’s next line of leaders.
“We are committed to ensuring a sustained growth across key business verticals as we are going through a restructuring initiative that signal a reinvigorated approach under Paytm’s CEO,” Paytm said in a statement.
The development comes three days after Paytm President and Chief Operating Officer Bhavesh Gupta had resigned citing personal reasons. Gupta was thought to be a close confidante of Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, and was one of the most influential officials at the firm. After his resignation, he had been moved to an advisory role in the CEO office. “In line with our on-going conversations, due to personal reasons, I will be unable to continue as President and COO,” Gupta had written in his resignation mail.
Just last month, Paytm Payments Bank CEO Surinder Chawla had resigned to “explore better career prospects”. His resignation had come amidst the backdrop of the RBI imposing severe penalties on Paytm Payments Bank which prevented it from accepting deposits or adding new customers, which had all but crippled the operations of the bank. A few days after Chawla’s resignation, Paytm Chief Marketing Officer Sumit Mathur left the company to join Glanbia Performance Nutrition as its Country head. Paytm’s Senior Vice President – Business, Praveen Sharma, had also resigned last month.
This means that Paytm has lost its President and Chief Operating Officer, its Chief Marketing Officer, the CEO of its Payments Bank, two Chief Business Officers and an SVP of Business within the last month alone. The resignations coincide with a crash in Paytm’s stock price, which currently trades close to its lifetime low of Rs. 333 per share, down a staggering 86 percent from its IPO price of Rs. 2150. The curbs imposed by the RBI on Paytm Payments Bank have all but finished its operations, and the effects are being felt elsewhere — the company had to bow out of the FasTag business, and has seen a rapid erosion in its digital payments marketshare in the last few months. It remains to be seen if Paytm recovers lost ground, but for the moment, the company is battling bad news on more fronts than one.