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PhonePe aims to list by mid-2026, source says

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Walmart ( WMT ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), Tiger Global seen selling some shares

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IPO could raise around $1.35 billion, Moneycontrol report

says

(Adds details)

By Jaspreet Kalra and Ashwin Manikandan

Sept 24 (Reuters) - Walmart ( WMT )-backed Indian

fintech firm PhonePe, the country's most used payment

application, has filed for an initial public offering, the

company's spokesperson said on Wednesday.

The application has been filed via the confidential route,

which allows firms to keep their filings private until the

public issue launches.

The firm is aiming to list by mid-2026, a source familiar

with the matter said. PhonePe was last valued at $12 billion,

when it raised capital from the private markets in 2023.

The source requested anonymity as they are not authorised to

speak to the media. PhonePe did not respond to queries seeking

details of the issue.

INDIA'S BUOYANT MARKETS ATTRACT MORE LISTINGS

PhonePe's IPO plan comes against the backdrop of buoyant

Indian primary markets, where fundraising is expected to surpass

the record $20 billion achieved in 2024. Firms including LG

Electronics' Indian unit and PayPal-backed Pine Labs are among

those planning to tap the markets.

As part of PhonePe's IPO, existing investors including

majority stakeholder Walmart ( WMT ), Microsoft ( MSFT ) and venture

capital firm Tiger Global are expected to offload part of their

shareholding, according to the source.

Details of how many shares may be sold by individual

investors were not available. The IPO is set to raise around 120

billion rupees ($1.35 billion), according to a Moneycontrol

report.

Walmart ( WMT ), Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Tiger Global didn't immediately

respond to Reuters' queries.

PhonePe, founded in 2015, is the top payments platform on

India's popular unified payments interface (UPI), with over 45%

market share by volume. It processed 9.15 billion of the 20

billion transactions on UPI in August, according to data from

the National Payments Corporation of India.

It has more than 600 million registered users and offers

payments solutions for over 40 million merchants.

In a regulatory filing ahead of the IPO, PhonePe disclosed

that its losses narrowed in the year ended March 2025 to 17.2

billion rupees. The company reported a loss of 19.96 billion

rupees in the year ended March 2024.

Its revenue from operations rose 40% to 71.15 billion

rupees.

Last year, India delayed the implementation of market share

caps on UPI, in a boost for PhonePe and rival Google Pay.

($1 = 88.7380 Indian rupees)