Samreen Ahmad · · 1 min readWalmart-owned PhonePe raises $350m at $12b valuation
PhonePe, an India-based fintech unicorn, has secured US$350 million from US-based growth equity fund General Atlantic at a pre-money valuation of US$12 billion. The round also saw participation from other global and local investors.
Photo credit: PhonePe
The deal marks the first tranche of a US$1 billion fundraise that PhonePe has been eyeing.
The funding will be used to develop infrastructure such as data centers; build new business verticals such as insurance, wealth management, and lending; and support the next wave of UPI payments, including UPI Lite, in India.
Founded in 2015 by former Flipkart executives Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer, PhonePe was acquired by the homegrown ecommerce titan in 2016 for US$20 million which had moved the fintech startup’s base to Singapore. It later became a part of the Walmart network after the US-based retailer acquired Flipkart for US$16 billion in 2018.
In October last year, PhonePe moved its domicile back from Singapore to India. Later in December, the firm separated from Flipkart, with the latter planning a multi-billion dollar IPO in the US for this year.
With a user base of 400 million, PhonePe accounts for nearly 50% of UPI transactions in India, surpassing Google Pay and Paytm.
See also: Why was Paytm’s market debut a flop?
Editing by Miguel Cordon and Lorenzo Kyle Subido
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