Paytm founder sells 3% stake for $309M to settle Ant Group obligations

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of India’s largest digital payments platform, just parted with a 3% stake in his own company. The price tag: $309 million, roughly 2,949 crore Indian rupees. Every dollar of that goes straight to Ant Group, the Chinese fintech giant that has been methodically unwinding its position in Paytm for years. The sale was executed through Resilient Asset Management BV, a Netherlands-based entity fully owned by Sharma. Paytm shares dipped about 1.4% on the news. How a Chinese exit became Sharma’s problem To understand why Sharma is selling shares and handing the cash to someone else, you need to rewind to 2023. That year, Ant Group’s Dutch subsidiary, Antfin (Netherlands) Holding B.V., transferred approximately 10.2% of its Paytm stake to Resilient Asset Management. The mechanism was optionally convertible debentures, which is a fancy way of saying Resilient got ownership rights over the shares while Ant kept the economic interest. Ant Group has been walking through that door in stages. It sold a 10.3% stake in Paytm back in August 2023, then offloaded another 4% in May 2025. The latest 3% block deal continues the pattern, and Sharma’s entity has disclosed ...