June 23 (Reuters) - Walmart ( WMT )-backed Indian

fintech firm PhonePe is preparing to file preliminary documents

for its initial public offering to raise as much as $1.5

billion, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people

familiar with the matter.

The IPO would value PhonePe at nearly $15 billion, the

report said, adding that PhonePe is planning to file draft

papers for the listing by August.

Both PhonePe and Walmart ( WMT ) did not immediately respond to

Reuters' requests for comment.

PhonePe is among the most widely used apps in India to make

payments via the country's popular unified payments interface

(UPI).

It has more than 600 million registered users across 40

million merchants. It processes over 310 million online

transactions daily.