PhonePe raises $700 million in a new funding round led by Walmart, becomes a separate entity
In unnamed funding round, Flipkart backed PhonePe raises fresh funds thereby taking its valuation to $5.5 billion.
PhonePe logo
PhonePe, owned by Walmart-backed Flipkart, is “partially” spinning off, the Bangalore-based financial services firm said on 3 December 2020. The firm said it has secured $700 million in a new financing round. This round, the name of which was not disclosed, was led by Walmart, with participation from some existing investors. The new round gave PhonePe, which was founded by three former Flipkart employees, a post-money valuation of $5.5 billion.
Speaking on the development, Sameer Nigam, Founder and CEO, PhonePe, said, “Flipkart and PhonePe are already among the more prominent Indian digital platforms with over 250M users each. This partial spin-off gives PhonePe access to dedicated long-term capital to pursue our vision of providing financial inclusion to a billion Indians.‘’
The partial spin-off will reduce Flipkart’s stake in PhonePe from 100 percent to 87 percent. PhonePe, which means “on the phone” in Hindi, currently leads the mobile payments market in India. In October, it surpassed Google Pay to become the top UPI (Unified Payments Interface) payments app.
UPI is a four-year-old payments infrastructure built by India’s largest banks. It is the most popular way people transact money digitally in India. PhonePe reported 835 million UPI transactions in October, ahead of Google Pay, which processed about 820 million transactions in the same month.
also read
From cocaine money laundering to fake names: The long list of scandals at Credit Suisse
With Credit Suisse in trouble, there was panic that the banking crisis was spreading to Europe. With the Swiss central bank stepping in, there is a respite for now. But the institution's history remains chequered. Here's a look at some of its biggest controversies
Former President Donald Trump's potential indictment caps decades of legal scrutiny
Trump could be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury as soon as this week, potentially charged with falsifying business records connected to hush money payments during his 2016 campaign to women who accused him of sexual encounters
Clever business: Video game company makes AI robot its CEO, stock value skyrockets in record time
Tang Yu, an AI robot, was named CEO of a Hong Kong-based video game company called NetDragon Websoft. In addition to outperforming the Hong Kong stock market, the company saw a significant rise in its stock value, all within 8-10 months.