Paytm Eyes $180 Billion Education Sector in India

Paytm plans to scale up its educational services portfolio to include payment for insurance for tuition fee loans, co-branded debit cards and test-taking platforms India to counter Google Pay and Phone Pay.

The RBI constituted the five-member committee in January to review the status of digitization of payments, identify gaps in the ecosystem, and suggest ways of plugging them. It was tasked to suggest a medium-term strategy for deepening digital payments and measures to strengthen safety and security.

Paytm, with a valuation of about $15 billion ,Paytm has planned to upgrade and evolve its education services to include the likes of co-branded debit cards, tuition fee loan payment, test-taking platforms, career counselling and job hunting resources. Last year GMV of a little less than $1 billion last year from the education space, Senior vice-president Vineet Kaul stated that Paytm said.

Education sector is going to attract a lion’s share of the investment this generation would make in the next few years. Put simply, it’s just mind-boggling for any company. The rise of E-Learning platforms, likes of Byju’s, that have been targeting the same generation in the last few years is a clear indication of the digital education revolution India is going through. Hence, offering a tailored made payment solution designed specifically for the Education sector of India is a well-calculated move made by Paytm.

Paytm plans to scale up its educational services portfolio to include payment for insurance for tuition fee loans, co-branded debit cards, test-taking platforms, among others in the next one to one-and-a-half years to clock a gross merchandise value (GMV) of around $2-3 billion, senior vice-president Vineet Kaul said . He further said, the estimated opportunity size in the Education sector of India is $180 billion by 2020 – nearly double the $96 billion in 2016.

The company also have the plans to expand from operations that just include payment of fees and certain other services to also provide an insurance product for tuition fees, called "Fee Protect", he added, now Paytm is building effective education products to list on the platform. In a year from now, with the test-taking platform ready, users will be able to buy education products and take tests on the platform.

The rising popularity and adoption of UPI payments by users and vendors across the country are affecting the growth of mobile wallets. However, Payment, the leader in the mobile wallet sector, is finding it tough to compete with rivals. The company recorded 140 million UPI transactions through its platforms in July 2019, as compared to over 300 million transactions, recorded by its rivals Google Pay and Phone Pay, together.