This is how Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma just raised Rs 325 crore

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma just made Rs 325 crore by just selling off 1% of his holding in One97 Communications. This amount will be used in Paytm’s payments bank.

Sharma had a 21.33% stake in One97 Communications as of March 2016, which is now gone down to 20.33%. The transaction values One97 Communications at about $4.7 billion.

"We completed the transaction last week," Sharma told TOI. Paytm got in-principle nod for payments bank but the final approval is awaited.

Under RBI rules, Sharma should hold a 51% stake in the payments bank for which he has created a new entity--Paytm Payments Bank. The commerce marketplace has been housed under another new entity called Paytm E-commerce Private.

Paytm has 11,000 employees now, of which 1,500 were added in just the past one month, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

"Our hiring is limited only by the capacity of our human resources bandwidth to hire people. We are looking at a 10-member sales team for each of the districts. We are also working with Niti Aayog to increase awareness across the country," Sharma told TOI.