PhonePe
Indian financial technology company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
PhonePe is an Indian digital payments and financial services company, headquartered in Bengaluru.[5][6] It was founded in December 2015,[7][2] by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer.[8] The PhonePe app, based on the Unified Payments Interface, went live in August 2016.[9][10]
 | |
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
Type of site | Digital payments & Financial services |
| Available in | Multilingual (11) |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Headquarters | Salarpuria Softzone, Bengaluru, Karnataka, |
| Area served | India |
| Founders |
|
| Industry | Fintech, Financial services, Payment gateway |
| Services | |
| Revenue |  ₹7,115 crore (US$840 million) (2025)[3] |
| Parent | Walmart |
| URL | phonepe.com |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Required |
| Users | 600 million[4] |
| Current status | Active |
| Native client(s) on | Android iOS |
The PhonePe app is accessible in 11 Indian languages.[11] It enables users to perform various financial transactions such as sending and receiving money, recharging mobile and DTH, making utility payments, conducting in-store payments.[12][13]
History
PhonePe was incorporated in December 2015.[14] In April 2016, the company was acquired by Flipkart[15][16] and as part of the acquisition, the FxMart license was transferred to PhonePe and rebranded as the PhonePe wallet. PhonePe's co-founder Sameer Nigam was appointed as the CEO of the company.[17]
In August 2016, the company partnered with Yes Bank to launch a UPI-based mobile payment app, based on the government-backed UPI platform.[18]
In December 2020, Flipkart and PhonePe declared a partial split, with Walmart maintaining its majority ownership in PhonePe and the two entities functioning independently.[19] In 2022, PhonePe shifted its domicile to India from Singapore and completed separation from Flipkart.[20]
In 2022, it launched international UPI payments, allowing Indian users traveling abroad to pay foreign merchants with Unified Payments Interface (UPI).[21][22]
In 2022, PhonePe obtained licensing from the Reserve Bank of India for operating a Semi-Closed Prepaid Payment system.[23]
In January 2023, PhonePe raised $350 million from General Atlantic, a US growth equity firm, at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion.[24] It raised another $100 million in primary capital in February 2023 from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, and TVS Capital Funds, followed by $200 million in primary capital from Walmart, and another $100 million from General Atlantic at the same valuation.[25][26]
In April 2023, PhonePe launched a new shopping app called 'Pincode', focused on hyperlocal e-commerce and built on top of the ONDC platform.[27] In August 2023, PhonePe launched Share.Market, a stock broking and mutual fund investment platform, via its subsidiary PhonePe Wealth Broking.[28][29][30] In February 2024, PhonePe introduced Indus Appstore, a mobile app store.[31][32][33]
In April 2025, PhonePe converted into a public company and changed its name from PhonePe Private Limited to PhonePe Limited as part of its preparations for an initial public offering.[34][35] According to media reports, in September 2025, PhonePe filed draft papers with SEBI for IPO via the confidential pre filing route.[36]
Awards and recognition
Legal challenges
On 14 January 2017, ICICI bank blocked PhonePe transactions, citing the reasons that it did not meet the NPCI guidelines.[39][40] Initially, on 19 January 2017, NPCI instructed ICICI to allow UPI transactions via PhonePe.[41] During this period, Airtel too blocked PhonePe transactions on its platforms.[42] A day later, on 20 January 2017, NPCI renounced the previous instructions citing the reason that PhonePe indeed violated the UPI norms.[43][44][45]
After this, PhonePe closed its operations on Flipkart's website,[46] to align itself with the terms stated in the updated verdict from NPCI. By February 2017, PhonePe resolved the issues with ICICI and Airtel.[47]
ESOP
PhonePe allots employee stock options (ESOPs) to its full-time employees.[48] In November 2021, PhonePe was reported to have conducted a buyback of ESOPs worth ₹1.35 billion (US$16 million), covering 75% of its current workforce who have completed at least a year of service.[49]