Paytm, a pioneer in mobile payments in India and one of the country’s best-known startups, set out years ago to build an ubiquitous digital-finance ecosystem much like Ant Group Co.’s Alipay in China.
Now, as Paytm’s owner nears a $2.2 billion listing that will see it beat Ant to the public markets, the company isn’t the dominant player it wanted to become and faces mounting challenges in an increasingly crowded Indian payments market. It has already been overtaken in one key area by deep-pocketed rivals including Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Walmart Inc. -backed Indian startup PhonePe.
