MUMBAI Indian digital payments firm Paytm reported a wider first-quarter loss as expenses related to marketing and employee benefits went up, but reiterated its goal of operational profitability next year.
The company's parent company, One 97 Communications Ltd, posted a consolidated net loss of 6.45 billion rupees $81.28 million for the quarter ended June 30, 69 per cent higher than the loss of 3.81 billion rupees $48 million a year earlier.
The company's stock exchange filing stated that the total income rose nearly 88 per cent to 17.81 billion Indian rupees.
Paytm said it is targeting operational profitability by September 2023, which is a combination of Google's payment app and Walmart Inc's PhonePe in India's digital payments market.
The company is firmly on the path towards operating profitability because of better cost leverage.
Marketing and employee benefit costs increased sharply, with total expenses rising by 84 per cent.
Paytm disbursed loans worth 55.54 billion rupees in the quarter, nearly nine times more than a year ago, it said last month.
The company, backed by China's Ant Group and Japan's SoftBank Group Corp., raised $2.5 billion late last year in one of India's biggest initial public offerings, but made a dismal debut due to concerns over its high valuation and uncertain path to profitability.