New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS): Leading payments and financial services company Paytm on Wednesday announced it reached 89 million average monthly transacting users (MTU) for the month of January, a 29 per cent (year-on-year) increase.

The company continues to dominate the offline payments market with 6.1 million merchants now paying subscriptions for payment devices, an increase of 0.3 million in January.

Paytm said it has seen a consistent growth in merchant payments volume with the total gross merchandise value (GMV) processed through the Paytm platform grew 44 per cent YoY aggregating to Rs 1.2 lakh crore ($15 billion) in January.

"Our focus over the past few quarters continues to be on payment volumes that generate profitability for us, either through net payments margin or from direct upsell potential," the company said.

In its stock exchange filing, Paytm said: "With our subscription as a service model, the strong adoption of devices drives subscription revenues and higher payment volumes, while increasing the funnel for our merchant loan distribution."

Paytm's loan distribution business continues to witness an accelerated growth with disbursements through the platform growing 327 per cent YoY to Rs 3,928 crore ($480 million).

The total number of loans disbursed surged 103 per cent YoY with 3.9 million loans disbursed in the month of January.

"Our payments consumer and merchant base offers a large addressable market, thereby providing a long runway for growth," said Paytm.

In its recently announced Q3FY23 results, Paytm achieved its milestone of operating profitability, much ahead of its September 2023 guidance.

The company's EBITDA before ESOP cost stood at Rs 31 crore with EBITDA before ESOP margin at 2 per cent of revenues as compared to (27 per cent) a year ago.

The fintech giant's revenue from operations increased 42 per cent YoY to Rs 2,062 crore.