Online payments and financial services company PhonePe has raised $350 million in funding from General Atlantic – a global growth equity firm.
The Walmart-owned startup raised the funding at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion, making it the most valuable fintech platform in India.
“We are an Indian company built by Indians. 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, PhonePe.
PhonePe said the funding would enable it to “turbo-charge” digital payments in India and enable greater financial inclusion.
The funds would be deployed for developing infrastructure, including data centres and help build financial services offerings at scale in the country.
“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’’, stated Sameer Nigam.
PhonePe and Flipkart announced a complete ownership separation of PhonePe, which will make the digital payment platform a separate entity last month. The fintech company announced a partial separation from Flipkart in December 2020.
PhonePe was founded in December 2015 as a digital payment application using the UPI platform. The company claims to have over 435 million registered users on its platform and has digitized 35 million offline merchants in Tier 2,3,4 parts of India. The company also provides access to several Mutual Funds and Insurance products on its platform.
The company has raised funds amid a slowdown in funding in the startup ecosystem as global and domestic investors turn conservative amid a crash in tech stocks.
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