PhonePe Raises $200 Million In Additional Funding From Walmart

India’s leading fintech platform PhonePe on Friday said it has raised an additional $200 million (about Rs 1,650 crore) in primary capital from Walmart, at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion.

“The new funding comes as part of PhonePe’s ongoing fundraise of up to $1 billion in capital, following its domicile shift to India last year. With this tranche, the company has raised $650 million from several global investors. The company expects further investments, which will be announced in due course,” PhonePe said in a statement.

It added that the company plans to deploy these funds to build and scale new businesses like insurance, wealth management, lending, stockbroking, ONDC-based shopping and account aggregators. The fundraise will also help PhonePe turbo-charge the next wave of growth for UPI payments in India, including UPI lite and Credit on UPI.

Sameer Nigam, CEO and founder of PhonePe, said, “We would like to thank Walmart, our majority investor, for their continued support of our long-term aspirations. We are excited about the next phase of our growth as we build new offerings for Indian consumers and merchants, along with enabling financial inclusion across the nation.”

Judith McKenna, president and CEO of Walmart International, said, “We are excited about PhonePe’s future and have confidence in how it continues to expand its offerings and provide access to financial services for Indians at scale. India is one of the world’s most digital, dynamic and fastest-growing economies, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to continue to support PhonePe.”

PhonePe has hit an annual total payment value (TPV) run rate of $1 trillion (Rs 84 lakh crore). The company has digitised over 35 million offline merchants spread across Tier 2, 3 & 4 cities and beyond.

PhonePe also announced that it has received an in-principle approval for its payment aggregator (PA) licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This approval will allow the company to scale its simplified payment solutions, and enable digital inclusion for millions of small businesses and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

Recently, the company also enabled payments abroad as well, and said all international merchant outlets in the UAE, Singapore, Mauritius, Nepal and Bhutan that have a local QR code are supported.

Read all the Latest Business News here