Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s loss—20M Paytm Fastags—is his ex-colleague’s gain

2024-03-08

As we know, Paytm* is in deep trouble but you know what they say about one man’s loss? It is another man’s gain.When the RBI killed Paytm Payments Bank’s services, it also meant it could not to accept deposits or top-ups in its customer accounts, including wallets and Fastag. Fastag is India’s electronic toll-collection system. Its basically a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology-enabled card that is fixed on a car’s windscreen. It helps in making toll payments directly from the customer’s bank account or wallet…like P...

As we know, Paytm* is in deep trouble but you know what they say about one man’s loss? It is another man’s gain.

When the RBI killed Paytm Payments Bank’s services, it also meant it could not to accept deposits or top-ups in its customer accounts, including wallets and Fastag. Fastag is India’s electronic toll-collection system. Its basically a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology-enabled card that is fixed on a car’s windscreen. It helps in making toll payments directly from the customer’s bank account or wallet…like Paytm wallet

Now Paytm happened to account for over a quarter of 82 million Fastags in India and with this RBI directive, nearly 20 million of these Fastags will be leaving the Paytm ecosystem. And of course, there is someone who wants to cash in on it.

It is a 4 year old car services platform called Park+. And here’s the twist in the tale. Park+ was founded by Amit Lakhotia who was formerly at Paytm and he helped the company set up its payments business.

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*Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an investor in The Ken

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