Bengaluru-based fintech startup PhonePe recently announced that it has raised fresh capital from its Singapore-based parent entity PhonePe Private Limited, Singapore.
According to a company filing, PhonePe has received $60 million (Rs 427.25 crore) in fresh capital from its Singapore parent, PhonePe Pvt Ltd. PhonePe allotted 1mn equity shares at a value of ₹10 with a premium of ₹4230 per share to PhonePe Pvt Ltd.
Post the infusion of funds, PhonePe stands at a valuation of $7bn, making it the fastest-growing payment facilitator. PhonePe claims to have over 175Mn users and provides them with its “super-app”, which integrates 50 digital apps including Goibibo and OYO. PhonePe currently generates about $180 billion in annualized total payments value (TPV).
PhonePe was founded by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, Burzin Engineer in 2015. It was the first payment app in India to be built on the Unified Payments Interface or UPI. Later in 2016, PhonePe was acquired by Flipkart in an attempt to take on Amazon. However, in 2018, retail giant Walmart announced the purchase of a 77% controlling stake in Flipkart in a hefty $16-billion deal, valuing the company at around $21 billion.
It is also being said that PhonePe was a major factor in Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart in 2018. However, this year, Flipkart passed a resolution for Phonepe to evolve as an independent entity and since then speculation is that it is raising fresh funding of up to $1 Bn.
“PhonePe’s ambition is to be India’s largest transaction platform anchored in payments,” said Judith McKenna, President, and CEO at Walmart International. McKenna said PhonePe is currently generating about $180 billion in annualized total payments value (TPV).
“This business is just three years old, and in that time it’s grown to almost 200,000 registered users. 20 million of them are using the app on a daily basis, and in total, those users are making more than 500 million monthly transactions,” McKenna said at a recent investor community meeting.
In recent times, PhonePe has launched UPI PhonePe ATM service, with which users can send money to merchants using the app to get cash equivalent to the amount. PhonePe’s entry into digital ATM business has left parent company Walmart quite impressed. The US-based retail giant is rooting for PhonePe to be “India’s largest transactional platform anchored in payments.”
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