PhonePe Raises $350 Million From General Atlantic Just a month post separation from Flipkart, PhonePe announced it has raised funds through General Atlantic to be valued at USD 12 billion
By Paromita Gupta •
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On Thursday, Fintech giant PhonePe announced that it had raised USD 350 million from General Atlantic, a US-based private equity company at a pre-money valuation of USD 12 billion. This puts the Walmart-backed startup in the decacorn league or startups valued at USD 10 billion or above, comprising Paytm, Swiggy, Byju's and Flipkart. With this, PhonePe has also become the most-valued fintech in India.
"I would like to thank General Atlantic and all our existing and new investors for the trust they have placed in us. PhonePe is proud to help lead India's country-wide digitization efforts and believes that this powerful public-private collaboration has made the Indian digital ecosystem a global exemplar. 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," said Sameer Nigam, Founder and CEO at PhonePe in the official press release.
The funds were raised under the first tranche of touching USD 1 billion which the digital payments startup had announced early this month. The second tranche is expected to close next month. Nigam and PhonePe plan to utilize funds for investments in data centers development and scaling financial offerings in the country. The funds raised will support the brand's upcoming growth wave for UPI in India, including UPI lite and Credit on UPI.
"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 added.
In November 2022, Walmart reported that PhonePe crossed 10 billion quarterly transactions in the September quarter. The startup is the leading player in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) segment with 3,674.24 million transactions volume in December 2022 as reported by NPCI. PhonePe and rival GooglePay command over a solid 85% of the market share.
In December 2022, PhonePe and Flipkart announced the full ownership separation of PhonePe, which the e-commerce giant had acquired in 2016. This completed PhonePe's process to be a fully India domiciled company.
Nigam further shared that the company plans to invest in new segments including Lending, Insurance, and Wealth Management. The speculation for the fintech player going public began making rounds last year, although there is no official confirmation.
