New Delhi Walmart-owned Indian digital payments app PhonePe has raised $350 million from US private equity firm General Atlantic at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion, becoming the latest decacorn as well as the most valuable domestic fintech startup. A decacorn is a privately held company valued at $10 billion or more.
The investment is the first tranche of PhonePe’s latest fundraise, in which leading global and Indian investors can invest up to $1 billion in PhonePe. Existing investors including Tiger Global Management, Qatar Investment Authority and Microsoft are also likely to invest in PhonePe.
The company plans to invest funds to strengthen infrastructure including development of data centers and offer financial services on a large scale in the country.
Co-founder and CEO Sameer Nigam said, “We look forward to completing the next phase of our growth by investing in new business verticals such as insurance, wealth management and lending, while facilitating the next wave of growth for UPI payments in India. Looking forward to doing.” on phonepe
The IPO-bound firm also plans to invest in new businesses including insurance, wealth management and lending. The funding will help the company expand UPI payments in India, including UPI Lite and Credit on UPI. “Our latest fundraising will help us further accelerate the Government of India’s vision of digital financial inclusion for all,” said Nigam.
The latest fundraising follows PhonePe’s recently announced change of domicile to India and spin-off from Flipkart. As part of the transaction, existing shareholders of Flipkart Singapore and PhonePe Singapore, led by Walmart, purchased shares directly in PhonePe India. The separation will help both the companies chart their own growth path, independently build their businesses and unlock and maximize enterprise value for their shareholders, PhonePe said in a statement.
Founded in December 2015 by Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burjin Engineer, PhonePe provides financial services to users. It offers mutual funds and insurance products on the platform and competes with publicly listed Paytm and Google Pay in India’s digital payments space.
PhonePe was acquired by Flipkart Group in 2016. The company claims to have over 400 million registered users and over 35 million offline merchants spread across India, covering 99% pin codes.
“Sameer, Rahul and the PhonePe management team carry forward a mission to digitize payments and broaden access to financial instruments for the people of India. They are focused on driving the adoption of inclusive products developed on the open API-based ‘India Stack’. “This approach aligns with General Atlantic’s long-standing commitment to supporting high-growth businesses focused on inclusion and empowerment,” said Shantanu Rastogi, managing director and head of India at General Atlantic. 1,646 crore to 690 crores in FY21.
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