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Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Sharma in 2019
Born	(1978-06-07) 7 June 1978 (age 46) Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India
Alma mater	Delhi College of Engineering (B.Tech)
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Founder & CEO of Paytm
Spouse	Mridula Parashar ​(m. 2005)​
Children	1
Awards	Yash Bharati

Vijay Shekhar Sharma (born 7 June 1978) is an Indian technology entrepreneur known for his role as the founder and chief executive officer of One97 Communications and its consumer brand Paytm.

In January 2022, the ICANN-supported Universal Acceptance Steering Group appointed him as UA Ambassador in India. As of September 2022, he had a net worth of US$1.1 billion according to Forbes.

Early life and education

Vijay Shekhar Sharma was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh on 7 June 1978, the third of the four children of Sulom Prakash Sharma, a school teacher, and Asha Sharma, a homemaker. He did his schooling from Harduaganj, a small town near Aligarh. He enrolled in college at the age of 15 and graduated with a B.Tech degree from the Delhi College of Engineering (now Delhi Technological University) at 19 years old

Career

In 1997, while in college, he started the website indiasite.net, and sold it two years later for US$1 million. Three years later, in 2000, he started One97 Communications which offered mobile content including news, cricket scores, ringtones, jokes and exam results. One97 Communications Limited is the parent company of Paytm, a digital payments and financial services company that was launched by Sharma in 2010. In November 2021, Paytm went public raising $2.5 billion at a valuation of $19 billion, making it India's largest initial public offering at that time.

Sharma is also an angel investor who has supported tech startups.

Sharma joined the board of management at Netaji Subhas University of Technology in Delhi for three years.

In 2024, Sharma stepped down from his role as part-time non-executive chairman and board member of Paytm Payments Bank. This decision followed regulatory challenges encountered by the bank with the Reserve Bank of India.

Awards and recognition

• Won the 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
• In 2018, he was named the Entrepreneur of the Year by AIMA
• 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.
• In 2017, he became the Dataquest IT Man of the year.
• 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.
• Named as the Businessman of the Year at GQ Men of the Year Awards 2016.
• He was conferred with the NDTV Indian of the Year in 2016.
• Awarded the Impact Person of the Year Award in 2016.
• Named India's Hottest Business Leader under 40 by The Economic Times in 2015.
• In September 2015, he was named CEO of the Year by SABRE Award.

Personal life

He is married to Mridula Parashar Sharma and they have a child. He cites Alibaba's founder Jack Ma and Masayoshi Son of Softbank, as his inspirations. In February 2022, Sharma was arrested by Delhi police for hitting his car into the car of a police officer. He was later released on bail.

Other work

Sharma has been named as the UN Environment's 'Patron for Clean Air', where he helps to drive environmental action and awareness and advocate for the goals of United Nations Environment's global Breathe Life campaign.

See also

• List of Indian entrepreneurs
• List of Internet entrepreneurs

References

1. "Vijay Shekhar Sharma reappointed as MD & CEO of Paytm till Dec 2027". Economic Times.
2. Jog, Natasha (20 August 2015). "Began College at 15, Has Billion-Dollar Firm at 37". NDTV.com.
3. "Vijay Shekhar Sharma". weforum.
4. "Began College at 15, Has Billion-Dollar Firm at 37". NDTV.
5. "Internet panel on languages ropes in Vijay Shekhar Sharma as ambassador". Business Standard. 19 January 2022.
6. "Vijay Shekhar Sharma". Forbes. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
7. "Vijay Shekhar Sharma Biography: Birth, Age, Family, Education, Career, Net Worth, Awards and More". Jagranjosh.
8. Tiwari, Mahesh. "Vijay Shekhar Sharma". newstrend.news. Newstrend. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
9. "How PayTM's Vijay Shekhar Sharma chased his dream instead of a degree". Scroll.
10. "Interesting facts of PayTM founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma". Businessinsider.
11. "Began College at 15, Has Billion-Dollar Firm at 37". NDTV.com. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
12. Sinha, Suveen (20 August 2016). "How PayTM's Vijay Shekhar Sharma chased his dream instead of a degree". Scroll.in.
13. "Before Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma Used To Own This Site That He Sold For $1 Million". Edtimes.
14. ^ "The king of cash". Calcutta: The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.
15. "Vijay Shekhar Sharma". Economic Times.
16. "Vijay Shekhar Sharma". Forbes. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
17. "Paytm dives to record low, wealth destruction for IPO investors tops $10 billion". Money Control.
18. "Exclusive: Ola Electric Adds Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Zoya & Farhan Akhtar To Its Captable". inc42.
19. "Vijay Shekhar Sharma-backed AjnaLens nets funding from Lets Ventures, angels, others". vccircle.
20. "Board of Management Members - Netaji Subhas University of Technology".
21. "Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma steps down from payments bank board". The Times of India. 26 February 2024.
22. "Announcement under Regulation 30 (LODR)-Press Release / Media Release" (PDF). BSE Limited.
23. "Pan India Excellence Awards for Rural and Urban Development Summit and Awards 2022 Distributed by Government of India". Newsvoir.
24. Giri, Manish Kumar. "Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma ranked India's youngest billionaire in Forbes's latest list | Forbes India". Forbes India. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
25. "AIMA Managing India Awards 2018". Aima.
26. "The 100 Most Influential People in the World". Time. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
27. "ET Awards for Corporate Excellence: Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma chosen as Entrepreneur of the Year". Economic Times. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
28. "GQ's Most Influential Young Indians 2017: Digital Disruptors". GQ (Indian edition). 7 July 2017.
29. Sacchdeva, Malavika (6 March 2017). "Vijay Shekhar Sharma to be awarded as DQ IT Person of the Year at Digital Economy Conclave". Dataquest.
30. "Airtel's Sunil Mittal, Paytm's Vijay Shekar given honorary degrees by Amity University". DNA INDIA.com.
31. "Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma goes to meet UP CM Akhilesh Yadav ... in a rickshaw!". The Economic Times. 28 October 2016.
32. "GQ Awards 2016 winners list". India.com. 28 September 2016.
33. "NDTV confers Indian of the Year Award 2015". United News of India. 3 February 2016.
34. "Vijay Shekhar Sharma wins IMPACT Person of The Year 2016 Award". Exchange4media. 14 December 2016.
35. "India's Hottest Business Leaders under 40: Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma was the youngest engineer from Delhi University". The Economic Times. 19 June 2015.
36. "Sabre Awards South Asia". Bestmediainfo. 21 September 2015.
37. Upadhyay, Harsh; Tyagi, Gaurav (2 July 2020). "Paytm founder floats 2 new entities for personal investments". Entrackr.
38. "Forbes profile: Vijay Sekhar Sharma". Forbes. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
39. "Vijay Sharma, Paytm: an for India". Financial Times.
40. IANS (13 March 2022). "Paytm CEO was released on bail in Feb after hitting police officer's car". Business Standard India. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
41. "Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma named UN Environment's Patron for Clean Air". The Economic Times. 5 December 2017.
42. "Vijay Shekhar Sharma". Unep.org. 2021.

• Businesspeople from Uttar Pradesh
• Living people
• 1978 births
• Delhi Technological University alumni
• Indian billionaires
• Indian company founders
• Businesspeople from Delhi