Four months after leading an investment of $350 million in the Indian fintech startup that has so far raised $850 million in an ongoing financing round at the height of the slowing global economy, General Atlantic has invested another $100 million in PhonePe. PhonePe, which is supported by Walmart, unveiled the interest in an explanation on Monday. In the current round, the startup, which has its headquarters in Bengaluru, is valued at $12 billion. PhonePe hopes to raise an additional $150 million in the current round. PhonePe's funding was increased by $100 million by General Atlantic last month. With a $12 billion valuation, PhonePe is the most valuable fintech startup in India. It rivals Google Pay and Paytm, the last choice of which is at this point regarded at nearly $5 billion.
PhonePe, which finished a full detachment from the web-based business monster Flipkart keeps going year, overwhelms exchanges on UPI, an organization worked by an alliance of retail banks in India. UPI is the most well-known way Indians execute on the web it processes in excess of 8 billion exchanges every month. Google's GPay and PhonePe right now process over 80% of all UPI exchanges. Over half of these value-added transactions are controlled by PhonePe, which has been around for seven years and is not slowing down. The business expressed recently that it was on target to process $1 trillion in yearly exchanges. Walmart stated earlier this year that Flipkart and PhonePe's separation was "very analogous to eBay and PayPal, where each of them operating independently can pursue their own initiatives." Additionally, Walmart owns a majority stake in the online retailer Flipkart.
According to people familiar with the growth equity investor's plans, General Atlantic plans to deploy at least $2 billion to $3 billion in India over the next five to seven years. The company has supported a number of Indian companies over the past decade, including Jio, BillDesk, Byju's, Amagi, NoBroker, and Unacademy. At a time when PhonePe is rapidly expanding its product offerings, new investment comes into play. The Indian government's Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), which aims to democratize the e-commerce landscape by providing a zero-commission platform, powers the startup's hyperlocal commerce app, Pincode, which was launched earlier this year. PhonePe said it will "contribute critical exertion" in Pincode and in "empowering each Indian retailer spread across each alcove and corner, over the course of the following couple of years."
By expanding into additional financial services like wealth management, lending, stockbroking, ONDC-based shopping, and account aggregation, PhonePe hopes to capitalize on its 450 million registered users. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which oversees the UPI network and sought to impose market share restrictions on participating players, was one potential obstacle to PhonePe's expansion. However, PhonePe can continue its rapid growth for two more years because the NPCI has extended the compliance deadline until 2025. The Reserve Bank of India, the nation's central bank, has decided to abandon a high-profile project that was initially intended to compete with the UPI platform, which is another positive development.
© Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved Powered by Vygr Media.
