Paytm fires 1,000 employees days after announcing to hire 50,000 people

As per reports, One97 Communications, the Paytm parent company, has fired 1,000 employees at multiple units.

The decision to fire will impact about 10 percent of the total employees, a report by ET Now says.

The company, as reports say, has fired the employees for cost cutting and realignment with various businesses.

Issuing a statement, Paytm stated, "We are transforming our operations with AI-powered automation to drive efficiency, eliminating repetitive tasks and roles to drive efficiency across growth and costs, resulting in a slight reduction in our workforce in operations and marketing.

"We will be able to save 10-15% in employee costs as AI has delivered more than we expected it to. Additionally, we constantly evaluate cases of non-performance throughout the year."

"Our core business of payment may see manpower increase by 15,000 more in the coming year. With a dominant position in the payments platform and a proven profitable business model, we will continue to innovate for India. In this, Insurance and Wealth will be a logical expansion of our platform, in continuation of our focus on the existing businesses.

Having shown the strength of our distribution-based business model in loan distribution, we are expanding the same to focus on new businesses to drive scale," it added.

However, last week, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma told Bloomberg as quoted by ET Now, "We have learned and we will amplify our ability to serve India, its small merchants, and businesses.

"We should be crossing about 50 million merchant-base signed up on the Paytm platform in the year."