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PhonePe, the Walmart-owned fintech firm, has raised $350 million in funding from General Atlantic at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. The investment marks the first tranche of an up to $1 billion total fundraising that commenced this month.
The funding round, which has other global and domestic investors, follows PhonePe’s recent change of domicile to India and full separation from e-commerce giant Flipkart. PhonePe plans will use the money to make investments in infrastructure, including developing data centres and building financial services offerings at scale. The company also plans to invest in new businesses, including insurance, wealth management, and lending.
PhonePe, which was founded in December 2015, said the funding will help it “turbo-charge” digital payments in India and enable greater financial inclusion. The company has more than 400 million registered users, meaning that more than one in four Indians use its services.
“I would like to thank General Atlantic and all our existing and new investors for the trust they have placed in us. We are an Indian company, built by Indians, and our latest fundraise will help us further accelerate the Government of India’s vision of digital financial inclusion for all,” said Sameer Nigam, founder and CEO of PhonePe.
“We look forward to delivering the next phase of our growth by investing in new business verticals like Insurance, Wealth Management and Lending, while also facilitating the next wave of growth for UPI payments in India,’’ he said.
“…the PhonePe management team have pursued a clear mission to drive payments digitalization and significantly broaden access to financial tools for the people of India. They remain focused on driving adoption of inclusive products developed on the open API-based ‘India stack.’ This vision is aligned with General Atlantic’s longstanding commitment to backing high-growth businesses focused on inclusion and empowerment,” said Shantanu Rastogi, managing director and head of India at General Atlantic. “
PhonePe recently announced a full separation from the Flipkart Group. After a partial separation from Flipkart in December 2020, a number of Flipkart shareholders, led by Walmart, acquired shares in the recent separation. This move will allow both companies to chart their own growth paths and build their businesses independently.
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