Paytm’s customer base target is 500 million and they have $500 million in their bank account. In FY19 they spent ₹ 3,400 crore, a little more than that year’s revenue on customer acquisition costs (CAC), i.e. on marketing and promotion. But they say this expense is falling as they become better accepted, known and trusted with time.
“Profitability—we’re well on our way. We need to continue investments for a business like ours. There are massive market opportunities that we can address by either building new technologies for which we need to hire more people in business development, in technology and product teams, opening up new markets or investing in our brands,” says Madhur Deora, president and group chief financial officer at Paytm.