Access to capital—whether public or private—defines a company’s long-term advantage, said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive of Paytm, on Friday.
“Thinking that public listing is a moat or being private is a moat—I think, visibility in the long term… all companies, in my opinion, access to capital definitely is a moat,” he said at the Startup Mahakumbh in New Delhi.
“But if you don’t need the capital…then the listing doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, investors are there for capital. Access to capital and the size of capital is what matters. For example, Flipkart was able to raise billions in private, and then even public markets hadn’t been that private. So, the need is the capital. The method could be any. And if you don’t need it, you don’t,” he added.
To be sure, Paytm raised ₹18,300 crore in its November 2021 public listing—India’s largest at the time. Despite the scale of the initial public offering (IPO), Paytm’s shares faced a sharp correction in the following months, shedding up to nearly 70% of their value from the issue price.
On the other hand, Sachin Bansal, who co-founded Flipkart, said public markets are the best source of capital.
He added that he plans to list his financial services business, Navi, which he founded after exiting Flipkart, in this fiscal.
“Now, we are at a place where we can use more capital, and I think public markets are the best source of capital—that’s what I believe, if you can handle the pay… or what comes with it,” he said.
This isn’t Navi’s first shot at going public. In September 2022, the company received the green light from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for a ₹3,350-crore IPO but decided to put the plan on hold, reportedly waiting for a more favourable market environment.
The broader fintech sector, however, continues to face increasing regulatory scrutiny—from digital lending guidelines to data localization rules—forcing founders to rethink scale strategies and timelines.
“In fintech, the regulator becomes an extremely important stakeholder—something you have to think about on a daily basis. In fact, to a certain extent, sometimes, they can become the most important stakeholder in the equation—at the detriment of sometimes customers, e-commerce, and so on and so forth,” Bansal said.
“So, I think, if the regulation is changing very quickly—which has been the case in the last couple of years with all the regulators—new stuff will come at you very, very quickly, and you have to just constantly deal with it. It’s like getting punched in the boxing ring, and then you pick it up, collect yourself, and keep going. So, it happens,” he added.
Regulators have equal seating at the table, added Alok Bansal, co-founder and executive vice-chairman of PB Fintech and Policybazaar. “Regulators and the government are another CXO at the table, basically.”
