PhonePe becomes most-valued fintech in India after raising $350 million at $12 billion valuation

Walmart-owned digital payments and financial services app PhonePe on Thursday said it has raised $350 million at a valuation of $12 billion in a funding round from General Atlantic, making it the most-valued fintech in the country.

"Marquee Global and Indian investors are also participating in the round," PhonePe said in a statement, adding the investment marks the first tranche of an up to $1 billion total fundraising that commenced in January 2023.

The fundraiser follows PhonePe's recently announced change of domicile to India and full separation from Flipkart.

PhonePe, in which the US retailer Walmart Inc. took ownership in 2018, plans to deploy the new funds to "make significant investments in infrastructure, including the development of data centres, and help build financial services offerings at scale in the country."

The company also plans to invest in new businesses, including insurance, infrastructure like data centre development, wealth management, and lending.

"The fundraise is expected to support PhonePe as it seeks to turbo-charge the next wave of growth for UPI payments in India, including UPI lite and credit on UPI," the statement said.

Company valuation

The company now joins the ranks of Flipkart, Paytm, Byju's, and Swiggy with a valuation of over $10 billion. It also surpassed the valuation of Razorpay, which was last valued at around $7.5 billion.

PhonePe and Paytm

The valuation also comes at a time when Paytm has seen a valuation drop of over 60 per cent with its total market capitalisation over $4.3 billion as of January 19. Though Paytm's revenue is much higher than that of PhonePe, with Paytm at Rs 3,892.40 crore and PhonePe at Rs 1,646 crore. Interestingly, PhonePe also reported a loss of Rs 2,014 crore, while Paytm reported a loss of Rs 2,325 crore.

PhonePE

Founded in December 2015, PhonePe has over 400 million registered users and over 35 million merchants spread across Tier 2, 3, and 4 cities and beyond.

PhonePe is an Indian company, built by Indians, and the latest fundraise will help in investing in new business verticals like insurance, wealth management and lending, while also facilitating the next wave of growth for UPI payments in India, said Sameer Nigam, founder and CEO at PhonePe.

"Sameer, Rahul and the PhonePe management team have pursued a clear mission to drive payments digitalization and significantly broaden access to financial tools for the people of India. They remain focused on driving adoption of inclusive products developed on the open API based 'India stack'.

"This vision is aligned with General Atlantic's longstanding commitment to backing high-growth businesses focused on inclusion and empowerment," said Shantanu Rastogi, Managing Director and Head of India at General Atlantic.

With inputs from PTI