Paytm falls 27% in its public debut

Fintech giant Paytm lost more than 27% in its public debut in India today and closed its first day of trading at a $13.6 billion valuation, significantly lower than the $20 billion valuation the firm was aiming for. Backed by SoftBank and Alibaba, mobile payment and e-commerce start-up was valued at $16 billion in private markets when it raised $1.66 billion of Series G venture funding in November 2019.

Paytm’s IPO is the latest in a series of debuts by Indian unicorns - delivery start-up Zomato, online insurance aggregator Policybazaar and fashion commerce Nykaa have made impressive debuts in the public market this year.