How Coke bottles and Lay’s chips helped Paytm grow into a ₹75,000 crore company

Long before Paytm became the ₹75,000 crore company it is today, its growth was fuelled not just big bets on digital payments but also everyday staples like Coke bottles and packets of Lay’s. Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma recently recalled how a quirky cashback promotion turned into one of Paytm’s biggest growth hacks. FILE PHOTO: A man uses his phone to scan a QR code of the digital payment app Paytm after purchasing a cold beverage at a shop in Kolkata, India on July 9, 2024. REUTERS/Sahiba Chawdhary/File Photo(REUTERS) Sharma told the story of Paytm’s “greatest growth hack” to Deedy Das, a Kolkata-born, US-based venture capital who was recently promoted to partner at Menlo Ventures. Das, in turn, shared it on social media. (Also read: Who is Deedy Das? Ex-Google and Facebook techie becomes partner at Menlo Ventures) “I met the billionaire founder of PayTM and he shared some of the best startup stories I’ve ever heard,” he wrote on X. Paytm CEO’s storiesVijay Shekhar Sharma told Das that “when times were tough, he sold 40% of the business for $17K to pay a loan which ended up being valued at $100M+”. He also spoke about how Paytm “accidentally” launched the biggest payments engine in Japan, PayPay. However, it was eventually was forced to stick to India instead of going global. In December 2024, Paytm agreed to sell its stake in PayPay to SoftBank for $279.2 million. Finally, Sharma told Das that “One of the greatest growth hacks was to let people scan a QR Code on Coke bottles and Lays’ packets to redeem 15 rupees”. He was referring to promotional offers run Paytm that allow customers to scan QR codes on bottles of Coca Cola or packets of Lay’s chips for a cashback. Paytm has run these offers several times – most recently in July 2025. Deedy Das ended his post hailing Sharma as “legendary” and the “OG Indian internet entrepreneur.” About PaytmPaytm, the fintech company founded Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010, currently has a market capitalization of ₹75,321 crore, according to Groww. One of Paytm’s biggest periods of growth occurred after the demonetization of November 2016. Paytm’s traffic increased 435%, app downloads grew 200%, and there was 250% rise in overall transactions and transaction value following demonetization.