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PhonePe has successfully raised an additional $100 million in funding from General Atlantic and co-investors, as part of its ongoing $1 billion round. With a valuation of $12 billion, this investment bolsters the total amount raised by the fintech unicorn to $850 million this year. Following the initial announcement in January, PhonePe has successfully raised $550 million from General Atlantic, $100 million from Tiger Global Management, Ribbit Capital, and TVS Capital, and an additional $200 million from its largest shareholder, Walmart.
In October, reports surfaced about PhonePe’s intention to secure new funding from General Atlantic and other investors at a valuation of $12 billion.
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This fundraising initiative by PhonePe comes after its spin-off from the e-commerce giant Flipkart, which was announced in December. This spin-off not only marks PhonePe’s independence but also solidifies its status as a fully Indian-domiciled company, a transition that began in 2022.
PhonePe has previously stated that the funds raised will be utilized to expand its payments and insurance operations in India. Additionally, the company plans to venture into new areas such as lending, stockbroking, ONDC-based shopping (open network for digital commerce), and account aggregation, aiming for aggressive growth over the coming years.
PhonePe recently launched a new consumer-facing application called Pincode, which is part of the ONDC framework, aiming to enhance its e-commerce endeavors. Reportedly, Sameer Nigam, the co-founder and CEO of PhonePe, revealed that the company has initiated digital lending trials for merchants and is planning for a forthcoming launch.
Nigam stated that they are actively working on digital lending and expanding their partnerships in this area. The demand for digital lending is high due to their existing long-standing relationships with merchants. However, Nigam emphasized that PhonePe does not intend to build loan portfolios internally but rather collaborate with partners for merchant lending.
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PhonePe was founded in 2015. It was started by former Flipkart executives Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer. It has established itself as a market leader in Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions with over 400 million registered users. The company holds a significant 47 percent market share in terms of monthly UPI volumes.
Since its inception in 2017, PhonePe has expanded its services beyond payments and ventured into financial services. Users can now utilize the platform to purchase gold, insurance, and mutual funds, in addition to making bill payments and utility payments.
