Fintech platform PhonePe has received an additional $200 million in primary capital from Walmart at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. The company has also received $650 million from several global investors.
The funds will be used to build and scale new businesses such as insurance, wealth management, lending, stock broking, ONDC-based shopping and account aggregators. The fundraising will also help PhonePe launch the next wave of growth in UPI payments, including UPI Lite and Credit on UPI.
Commenting on the development, Sameer Nigam, founder and CEO of the fintech company, said: “We would like to thank Walmart, our primary investor, for their continued support of our long-term goals. We look forward to the next growth phase as we develop new offerings for Indian consumers and merchants and promote financial inclusion nationwide.”
PhonePe was founded in 2015 by former Flipkart executives Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer. Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart acquired PhonePe in 2016. In 2018, Walmart acquired Flipkart, and PhonePe was also part of the deal. The digital payments company was Flipkart‘s third major space acquisition, following NGPay and FX Mart Pvt. Ltd.
In January this year, PhonePe moved to India from Singapore.