Paytm to introduce tuition fee insurance and debit cards for students

Digital payments platform Paytm will introduce services like insurance for tuition fees and debit cards for students.

The payments unicorn is aiming to achieve a gross merchandise value of around $2-3 billion in the next one and a half years, an official statement said. 

Paytm is developing a student smart card which can be used for carrying out financial transactions. The card could also be used as a student ID (identification), attendance and library card and will be co-branded with educational institutes, the statement added.

Paytm will insure tuition fees by charging an annual premium of Rs 250 per lakh. Users who avail of the facility will be eligible for the insurance payout in case they drop out of the course, a spokesperson said.

The digital payments startup has already rolled out services for fee payment and career counselling. Paytm already has more than 10,000 colleges, universities and other educational institutions listed on its platform. 

In August, Paytm had announced plans of introducing educational services such as a coaching marketplace, government exam forms, nursery admission forms and private college admissions.

“In a year from now, we would have finished a broad set of products that we want to build, making sure students, parents and government job applicants see Paytm Education as a one-stop destination for all their needs," said Vineet Kaul, senior vice president, Paytm Education. 

Paytm Education was recently added as a vertical by the payments platform and offers a variety of services such as in-app educational centres, coaching, scholarships, test preparation, admission forms, student insurance, educational loans and other allied academic services. 

Recent developments

Last week, Paytm appointed former Google executives Praveen Sharma as senior vice president for ad business and Ankit Sinha as vice president to lead Paytm AI cloud. 

Paytm recently announced the appointment of former Goldman Sachs executive Amit Nayyar as the president of its financial services vertical. Nayyar was appointed to lead the company’s efforts to step up business in lending, insurance, broking and wealth management. 

In August, holding company One97 Communications allocated Rs. 750 crore to bolster efforts of roping in new customers. Paytm said that it was also planning to bring on board 250 million monthly active users on its platform.

In July, Lending platform Clix Finance partnered with Paytm to offer prompt digital loans to customers and merchants.