Walmart-Owned Payments Firm PhonePe Looks to Raise $1B

PhonePe reportedly hopes to raise $1 billion as it tries to become a super app.

The payments company — owned by the eCommerce firm Flipkart, which is itself owned by Walmart — is working with investors that include General Atlantic Tiger Global Management, Qatar Investment Authority and Microsoft, Bloomberg News reported Thursday (Dec. 8).

Sources tell Bloomberg the all-equity round is expected to wrap up in the next two weeks and could bring PhonePe’s valuation to nearly $13 billion.

The report also notes that India’s startups are in the midst of a funding drought, with companies cutting staff on putting plans to go public on hold.

That drought is not just confined to India. This week saw a report from the venture capital firm Atomico that showed the European tech sector saw $400 billion in value wiped out this year.

The report also found that 82% of founders interviewed by Atomico said it was harder to raise venture capital than it was 12 months ago.

PhonePe’s $1 billion funding target is twice the amount PhonePe was initially reported to have been seeking in October in its bid to become a financial service super app, as PYMNTS wrote.

Earlier this year, the company reported that its annualized total payments volume rose to $830 billion during the quarter that ended in June — up from $770 billion in the previous quarter. PhonePe also saw its monthly transaction volume exceed $3.1 billion.

As Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said on an earnings call at the time: “I traveled to India last month and was impressed by how Flipkart and PhonePe teams are innovating for the customer and driving growth.”

PhonePe acquired two wealth management firms — WealthDesk and OpenQ — in May as part of its plan to build a wealth ecosystem for the PhonePe Group.

As reported at the time, the acquisitions were designed to help PhonePe grow its payment offerings and compete with tech rivals such as Google, Amazon and Paytm.