PhonePe raises $350 Mn, joins India's decacorn club
Payments app PhonePe has raised $350 million in funding from global growth equity firm General Atlantic at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion.
The latest valuation has put the Bengaluru-headquartered startup in India’s decacorn club ( startups with a valuation of over $10 billion).
The General Atlantic investment marks the first tranche of an upto $1 billion total fundraise that PhonePe has commenced in January 2023. Other new marque global and Indian investors have already been signed up for the second tranche, which is expected to close next month.
The fundraise follows PhonePe’s recently announced change of domicile to India and full separation from Flipkart.
PhonePe plans to deploy the new funds to make significant investments in infrastructure, including the development of data centers and help build financial services offerings at scale in the country.
The company also plans to invest in new businesses, including Insurance, 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 to enable greater financial inclusion for Indians.
“We are an Indian company, built by Indians, and our latest fundraise will help us further accelerate the Government of India’s vision of digital financial inclusion for all. We look forward to delivering the next phase of our growth by 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 digitalisation 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.
PhonePe also recently announced a full separation from the Flipkart Group. After a partial separation from Flipkart in December 2020, a number of Flipkart shareholders, led by Walmart, acquired shares in the recent separation.
This move will allow both companies to chart their own growth paths, build their businesses independently, and help unlock and maximise enterprise value for shareholders of the two companies.