Private Equity PE Fund Investments
Payments unicorn PhonePe raises $350-M from General Atlantic at $12-B valuation
Walmart-controlled payments and financial services unicorn PhonePe has raised USD 350 million from General Atlantic at a valuation of over USD 12 Billion. The company would be raising about USD 1 Billion in the current round in tranches.
PhonePe will invest the funds in infrastructure, including in the development of data centers. The company also plans to invest in new businesses, including insurance, wealth management, and lending. PhonePe will also focus on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) lite and credit on UPI.
PhonePe was founded in 2015 by former Flipkart executives Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer. The fintech claims to have over 400 million registered users representing a 47% market share in UPI transactions. For FY22, PhonePe had a revenue of INR 1,646 crore and reported a loss of INR 2,014 crore, which had widened from INR 1,729 crore in FY21.
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From the Venture Intelligence PE-VC Deal Database: In Dec 20, PhonePe had raised USD 66.5 M from Tencent, Tiger Global and others. (Subscribers to the database can login to view the valuation, deal structuring and other transaction details.)
From the Venture Intelligence M&A Deals Database: In April-17, Flipkart acquired PhonePe even as it was building a product based on the then new unified payments interface (UPI) and had 15 employees. In May-18, US-based Walmart acquired a controlling stake in Flipkart in a USD 16 Billion deal.