Homegrown digital payments startup PhonePe, on Thursday, said it had raised $350 million from a global growth equity firm General Atlantic at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. With this, the startup now ranks above Swiggy, Polygon, Oyo, Dream 11, RazorPay and Ola.

The latest fundraising follows PhonePe’s recently announced change of domicile to India and its full separation from Flipkart.

This investment marks the first tranche of an up to $1 billion fundraising that commenced in January 2023. Marquee global and Indian investors also participated in the round, the company said in a statement.

Sameer Nigam, Founder and CEO at PhonePe, said, “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 digitisation efforts and believes that this powerful public-private collaboration has made the Indian digital ecosystem a global exemplar.”

Also Read: Flipkart and PhonePe will now operate as fully separate entities

PhonePe plans to use the new funds to make investments in infrastructure, including the development of data centres and help build financial services offerings at scale in the country. The company also plans to invest in new businesses, including insurance, wealth management, and lending.

Shantanu Rastogi, Managing Director and Head of India at General Atlantic, said, “Sameer, Rahul and the PhonePe management team have pursued a clear mission to drive payments digitalisation 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.”

“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,’ added Nigam.

PhonePe, with this fundraiser, aims to turbo-charge the next wave of growth for UPI payments in India, including UPI lite and Credit on UPI to enable greater financial inclusion for Indians.

Recently, PhonePe announced a full separation from the Flipkart Group. Several Flipkart shareholders, led by Walmart, acquired shares in the recent separation. This move will allow both companies to chart their own growth paths, build their businesses independently, and help unlock and maximise enterprise value for shareholders of the two companies, stated PhonePe.

Also Read: Walmart gets $1 billion tax bill for shifting PhonePe headquarters to India: Report

(Edited by : Vivek Dubey)

First Published:Jan 19, 2023 11:31 AM IST