PhonePe, the Indian fintech giant, has raised an additional $200 million as part of an ongoing financing round, bringing the total raised to $650 million in recent weeks, despite market instability. The round has been led by Walmart, which owns the majority of PhonePe and values the company at $12 billion pre-money. PhonePe plans to raise up to $1 billion as part of the financing round, which it will use to expand its offerings and provide financial services for Indians at scale.
PhonePe competes with Google Pay and Paytm and dominates transactions on UPI, a network built by a coalition of retail banks in India. The network processes over 8 billion transactions a month, with PhonePe commanding around 50% of them. Last week, PhonePe announced it was on track to process transactions worth $1 trillion annually.
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The recent extension of the deadline until 2025 for the regulator’s market cap on each participating player has paved the way for PhonePe’s growth for another two years. Industry experts believe PhonePe’s end game may be to become a bank, justifying the lofty valuation. PhonePe clocked a revenue of $234.3 million in the first nine months of 2022, projecting a revenue of $325 million for 2022 and $504 million for 2023. The firm doesn’t expect to turn EBIDTA positive until 2025.
