Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma delivered an emotional speech at this morning’s BSE debut, following India’s largest-ever IPO, to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
Attendees in the BSE hall saw Mr Sharma wipe his tears away with his hands.
Mr. Sharma, an engineering graduate, founded Paytm in 2010 as a mobile recharge platform.
When Uber added Paytm as a payment option, its popularity skyrocketed, and it skyrocketed again in November 2016, when the government banned high-value currency notes overnight.
According to Forbes, Mr Sharma, the son of a schoolteacher, has become a billionaire worth $2.4 billion as a result of Paytm’s success. Furthermore, its IPO has resulted in the creation of hundreds of new millionaires in the United States.
Paytm’s stock dropped 21% during its initial public offering, valuing the digital payments company at around $1.11 trillion. In early morning trading, shares were trading at 1,705, compared to the company’s stated price of 2,150.
Paytm raised $2.5 billion in its IPO, with institutional investors including SoftBank contributing $1.1 billion.
