Vijay Shekhar Sharma

• Vijay Shekhar Sharma, born on June 7, 1978, in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, was the third child of Sulom Prakash Sharma, a school teacher, and Asha Sharma, a homemaker. He completed his schooling in Harduaganj, near Aligarh. Remarkably, he entered college at the age of 15 and obtained a B.Tech degree from Delhi College of Engineering (now Delhi Technological University) by the age of 19.
• Sharma's entrepreneurial journey began while he was still in college, founding the website indiasite.net in 1997, which he later sold for US$1 million in 1999. In 2000, he established One97 Communications, initially offering mobile content services such as news, cricket scores, ringtones, jokes, and exam results. This venture evolved into Paytm, a digital payments and financial services company launched in 2010. Paytm went public in November 2021, raising $2.5 billion at a valuation of $19 billion, marking India's largest initial public offering at the time.
• Beyond his ventures, Sharma is an active angel investor in the tech startup space. He also served on the board of management at Netaji Subhas University of Technology in Delhi for three years.
• In 2024, Sharma made the decision to step down from his role as part-time non-executive chairman and board member of Paytm Payments Bank, following regulatory challenges faced by the bank with the Reserve Bank of India.

Events

• WSJ D.Live Laguna 2018
  • Speaker
  • Laguna Beach, California, United States, North America
  • Nov 12, 2018

• GMIC Bangalore 2016
  • Speaker
  • Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Asia
  • Nov 16, 2016

Awards and Recognition

• 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.
• Ranked the Youngest Indian Billionaire by Forbes magazine.
• Entrepreneur of the Year by AIMA in 2018.
• Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in 2017.
• ET Entrepreneur of the Year by The Economic Times in 2016.
• Ranked by GQ in their listing of the 50 most influential young Indians of 2017.
• Dataquest IT Man of the year in 2017.
• Received an Honorary doctorate from Amity University, Gurgaon, in 2016.
• Honored with the Yash Bharati, the highest state civilian award of the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 2016.
• Businessman of the Year at GQ Men of the Year Awards 2016.
• Conferred with the NDTV Indian of the Year in 2016.
• Impact Person of the Year Award in 2016.
• India's Hottest Business Leader under 40 by The Economic Times in 2015.
• CEO of the Year by SABRE Award in September 2015.