Walmart’s PhonePe Steps up Competition With WealthDesk, OpenQ Buys

PhonePe is stepping up the competition in India and trying to further take on Google and Amazon with the acquisition of wealth management firms WealthDesk and OpenQ, according to multiple media reports on Thursday (May 19) citing unnamed sources with insider information.

Headquartered in Bengaluru, India, PhonePe is picking up WealthDesk for about $50 million and OpenQ for an estimated $25 million, sources told Bloomberg. PhonePe is majority-owned by Flipkart, which is owned by Walmart.

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PhonePe applied to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) earlier this year for a mutual fund license, per multiple reports. PhonePe and other competitors had been looking to establish an asset management company.

“The founder of WealthDesk and the entire team will be working as a part of the PhonePe group and both platforms will remain independent,” a PhonePe spokesperson said in a statement, per Bloomberg. The spokesperson also said that PhonePe is picking up OpenQ.

The PhonePe spokesperson said both acquisitions will be instrumental in creating a wealth ecosystem for the PhonePe Group.

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Founded in 2016, WealthDesk is based in Mumbai and enables people to back stocks and exchange-traded funds. The acquisitions are intended to help PhonePe expand its payments offerings and take on tech rivals like Google, Amazon and Paytm.

PhonePe was founded in 2015 and is headed by Sameer Nigam. It was partially spun off from Flipkart in 2020.

Related: Flipkart Boosts Sellers Through Faster Payments, Easier Onboarding

Flipkart rolled out several policy changes last month, including cutting payment settlement cycles and low return costs. The company is also implementing travel benefits for sellers via a partnership with Cleartrip.