Vijay Shekhar Sharma (born 7 June 1978) is an Indian technology entrepreneur, multimillionaire and business magnate. He is the founder and chief executive officer of One97 Communications founded in 1997 and its consumer brand Paytm which he started in 2010.[1][2][3][4]
Vijay Shekhar Sharma was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh on 7 June 1978, the third of the four children of Sulom Prakash Sharma, a school teacher, and Asha Sharma, a homemaker.[7][8] He did his schooling from Harduaganj, a small town near Aligarh.[9] He enrolled in college at the age of 15 and graduated with a B.Tech degree from the Delhi College of Engineering (now Delhi Technological University) at 19 years old [10][11][12]
Career
In 1997, while in college, he started the website indiasite.net, and sold it two years later for US$1 million.[13][14] Three years later, in 2000, he started One97 Communications [15] which offered mobile content including news, cricket scores, ringtones, jokes and exam results.[14]One97 Communications Limited is the parent company of Paytm, a digital payments and financial services company that was launched by Sharma in 2010.[16] In November 2021, Paytm went public raising $2.5 billion at a valuation of $19 billion, making it India's largest initial public offering at that time.[17]
In 2024, Sharma stepped down from his role as part-time non-executive chairman and board member of Paytm Payments Bank. This decision followed regulatory challenges encountered by the bank with the Reserve Bank of India.[21][22]
Awards and recognition
Won the Best Serial Entrepreneur Award at the Rural and Urban Development Summit and Awards 2022 presented by the Minister of State for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India.[23]
Ranked the Youngest Indian Billionaire by Forbes magazine [24]
In 2018, he was named the Entrepreneur of the Year by AIMA [25]
In September 2015, he was named CEO of the Year by SABRE Award.[36]
Personal life
He is married to Mridula Parashar Sharma[37] and they have a child.[38] He cites Alibaba's founder Jack Ma and Masayoshi Son of Softbank, as his inspirations.[39] In February 2022, Sharma was arrested by Delhi police for hitting his car into the car of a police officer. He was later released on bail.[40]
Other work
Sharma has been named as the UN Environment's 'Patron for Clean Air', where he helps to drive environmental action and awareness and advocate for the goals of United Nations Environment's global Breathe Life campaign.[41][42]
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