Paytm CEO Compares His Challenges to Musk’s After IPO Flop

The founder and chief executive officer of One 97 Communications Ltd. compared his company to Tesla Inc. -- and by extension drew parallels between his challenges and those of Elon Musk in the past -- after the Indian payments startup suffered a brutal first-day plunge following its initial public offering.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma held a four-hour town hall to rally employees who had watched the company’s stock plummet 27% on Thursday, according to people who had attended. The 43-year-old encouraged them to look past the initial stumble and to focus on the long-term opportunities for bringing digital payments to the country’s fast-growing internet population. One 97 Communications is the parent company for the Paytm service.