Brands
Paytm turns the corner with Rs 225 crore profit in Q3 results
NOIDA: One 97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, has swung decisively into the black, posting a profit after tax of Rs225 crore for the quarter ending December 2025, an improvement of Rs433 crore year-on-year. The digital payments pioneer has now clocked three consecutive quarters of profitability, with EBITDA reaching Rs156 crore and a margin of seven per cent, up from a Rs 223 crore loss in the same quarter last year.
The Noida-based firm’s operating revenue grew 20 per cent year-on-year to Rs2,194 crore, driven by higher payments, gross merchandise value, merchant subscriptions and financial services distribution. Like-for-like revenue growth stood at roughly 25 per cent, with the reported figure reflecting the timing of festive sales, lower loan distribution under default loss guarantee programmes and a more conservative revenue recognition policy.
Paytm is clawing back consumer market share in the fiercely competitive unified payments interface space. Its consumer UPI GMV jumped 35 per cent over the past nine months, handily beating industry growth of 16 per cent. The company’s AI-first, product-led strategy has delivered consistent gains for three consecutive quarters, a striking reversal after years of playing catch-up to rivals such as PhonePe and Google Pay.
“Building on this momentum, we have prudently invested in promotional expense to boost consumer retention and market share gain,” the company said in its earnings release. Promotional cashbacks and incentives rose to Rs69 crore from Rs37 crore a year earlier, with initiatives such as the Gold Coin campaign driving customer retention benefits.
The firm’s merchant business remains robust. Device subscriptions reached 14.4 million, an addition of 2.7 million year-on-year, expanding its recurring revenue base. Gross merchandise value grew 24 per cent to Rs6.2 lakh crore. Monthly transacting users hit 76 million, up 6 million year-on-year, as the company’s AI-powered features enhanced engagement among higher-quality users.
Contribution profit, a closely watched metric, stood at Rs1,249 crore, up 30 per cent year-on-year, with contribution margin improving to 57 per cent. The improvement stemmed from higher payment processing margins and an increased share of financial services distribution revenue, which grew 34 per cent to Rs672 crore. Customers availing financial services through Paytm’s platform increased from 590,000 to 710,000.
The company has absorbed the full impact of India’s new labour code in this quarter whilst keeping total indirect expenses down eight per cent year-on-year at Rs1,092 crore. Employee costs, excluding sales staff, declined 22 per cent, helped by lower ESOP costs following chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s voluntary surrender of employee stock options in the previous financial year.
Paytm received all three key payment licences from the Reserve Bank of India for online, offline and cross-border payments in its wholly owned subsidiary, Paytm Payment Services Limited. The approvals enable end-to-end payment aggregation services and support the company’s long-term growth ambitions. The firm resumed onboarding online merchants following receipt of the payment aggregator licence last quarter.
The firm also made regulatory strides internationally. The board of Paytm Arab Payments, a wholly owned subsidiary incorporated for the UAE market, approved issuance of 49 per cent of post-issue paid-up share capital to Abbar Global Opportunities Holdings Limited, an Abu Dhabi company. Paytm Cloud Technologies Limited, another subsidiary, has incorporated two new wholly owned subsidiaries in Indonesia and Luxembourg as part of its international expansion strategy.
Yet challenges loom. The Payment Infrastructure Development Fund incentive scheme, which contributed Rs216 crore over the nine months ending December 2025, expired in December. Management expects to “significantly offset the impact over time through a combination of higher revenues and targeted sales efforts”, though contribution margins are expected to slip to the mid-50s from 57 per cent.
Cash and investment balances stood at Rs12,882 crore, providing continued flexibility to expand the business. Depreciation and amortisation fell 19 per cent to Rs133 crore, reflecting lower device costs and a focus on refurbishment. The firm has moved away from “adjusted” metrics in favour of GAAP-basis reporting, which management said “drives appropriate resource allocation decisions”.
Sharma has steered Paytm through turbulent waters. After the Reserve Bank barred its payments bank from onboarding new customers in early 2024 over compliance failures, the company has methodically rebuilt trust with regulators whilst transforming its business model. The merchant loan distribution business, built on six years of experience, now exhibits what management calls “lower cyclicality and sustainable growth”, with repeat borrowers remaining above 50 per cent.
Looking ahead, management flagged that other income is expected to decline from the fourth quarter onwards. Maturing investments are being reinvested at lower yields following a 125 basis point repo rate cut over the past year, whilst an increase in the margin trading facility book generates operating income rather than other income. Starting in financial year 2027, income tax expense will apply to other income, which primarily comprises interest income, though operating profits will continue to be offset against carry-forward losses from prior periods.
The company noted “insignificant impact” from industry-wide regulatory changes, including the September 2025 stoppage of rent payments through credit cards and August 2025 real money gaming regulations, crediting proactive compliance measures. Sunil Kumar Bansal, company secretary and compliance officer, filed the earnings release with the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange on 29th January.
For a firm that bled cash for years whilst building India’s digital payments infrastructure, profitability marks a watershed moment. Whether Paytm can sustain these gains whilst fending off deep-pocketed rivals and navigating regulatory scrutiny will determine if this quarter proves a turning point or merely a fleeting respite.
Brands
Godrej clarifies ‘GI’ identifier after logo similarity debate
Says GI is not a logo, will not replace Godrej signature across products.
MUMBAI: In a branding storm where shapes did the talking, Godrej is now spelling things out. Godrej Industries Group (GIG) has issued a clarification on its newly introduced ‘GI’ identifier, addressing questions around its purpose and design following a wave of online criticism. At the centre of the debate were two concerns: whether the new mark replaces the long-standing Godrej logo, and whether its geometric design mirrors other corporate identities.
The company has drawn a clear line. The Godrej signature logo, it said, remains unchanged and continues to be the sole logo across all consumer-facing products and services. The ‘GI’ mark, by contrast, is not a logo but a corporate group identifier intended for use alongside the Godrej signature or company name, and aimed at stakeholders such as investors, media and talent rather than consumers.
The need for such a distinction stems from the 2024 restructuring of the broader Godrej Group into two separate business entities. With both continuing to operate under the same Godrej name and signature, the identifier is positioned as a way to differentiate the Godrej Industries Group at a corporate level.
The rollout, however, triggered a broader conversation on design originality. Critics pointed to similarities between the GI mark’s geometric composition and logos used by companies globally, raising questions about distinctiveness.
Responding to this, GIG said its intellectual property and legal review found that such overlaps are common in minimalist, geometry-led design systems. Basic forms such as circles and rectangles appear across dozens of brand identities worldwide, the company noted.
It added that the identifier emerged from an extensive design process and was chosen for its simplicity, allowing it to sit alongside the Godrej signature without competing visually. While acknowledging that elemental shapes may appear less distinctive in isolation, the group emphasised that the mark is part of a broader identity system that includes a custom typeface, sonic branding and other proprietary elements.
Following legal and ethical assessments, the company said it found no impediment to using the identifier, reiterating that the GI mark is a corporate tool not a consumer-facing symbol.
In short, the logo isn’t changing but the conversation around it certainly has.
