PhonePe
PhonePe is an Indian digital payments and financial services company[7] headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.[8][9] PhonePe was founded in December 2015,[3] by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer.[10] The PhonePe app, based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), went live in August 2016.[11]
Type of business
Digital payments & Financial services
Multilingual (11)[1]
2015
- Sameer Nigam[3]
(Co-Founder & CEO) - Rahul Chari
(Co-Founder & CTO) - Burzin Engineer
(Co-Founder & CRO)
- Digital payments
- Mobile payments
- Payment systems
- Financial services
- Merchant payments
- Mutual funds
- Insurance
- Digital gold
- Payment gateway
- Account Aggregator
- Merchant Lending
- Hyperlocal e-commerce app built on ONDC - Pincode
- Stock broking app and web platform - Share.Market
Yes
Required
500 million[6]
Active
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 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.[3][18][19]
In January 2018, the app garnered ten million downloads.[20][21] In August 2017, the PhonePe app surpassed BHIM in UPI transactions.[22]
In 2022, PhonePe became the first UPI TPAP (Third Party Application Providers) App to allow UPI activation through Aadhaar. A year later, it further expanded its services by launching international UPI payments, allowing Indian users traveling abroad to pay foreign merchants with Unified Payments Interface (UPI).[23] As per NPCI's UPI ecosystem statistics, PhonePe currently holds a 50% market share by value of transactions in the UPI market.[24][25]
In 2022, PhonePe obtained licensing from the Reserve Bank of India for operating a Semi-Closed Prepaid Payment system.[26][27]
In August 2023, PhonePe introduced a stock broking app and web platform named Share Market, via its subsidiary PhonePe Wealth Broking. The platform allows users to trade in stocks and mutual funds, including intraday trading and pre-curated investment baskets.[28]
In February 2024, PhonePe introduced Indus Appstore, a mobile app store. The app store offers over 2 lakh apps and games across 45 categories.[29]
2024
In February, PhonePe SmartSpeakers introduced a celebrity voice feature in partnership with Indian actors Mammootty, Kichcha Sudeep, and Mahesh Babu. This feature enables validation of customer payments in English and regional languages - Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu - using the respective celebrity voices, catering to users in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.[84]
Ownership and funding
In December 2020, Flipkart and PhonePe declared a partial split, with Walmart maintaining its majority ownership in PhonePe and the two entities now functioning independently.[63]
PhonePe announced the acquisition of $350 million from General Atlantic, a US growth equity firm, at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion.[85] Subsequently, another $100 million was attained 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. This brings the total amount of funding raised by PhonePe to $850 million.[86][87]
Licenses received
In April 2021, PhonePe Wealth Broking Private Limited, a subsidiary of PhonePe, registered with the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as a Stock Broker.[88]
In August 2021, PhonePe Insurance Broking Services Private Limited, a subsidiary of PhonePe, received an insurance broking license from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). This registration allows the company to distribute insurance products from all insurance companies in India.[89][90]
In March 2022, it was also registered as a Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU) with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the Bharat Bill Payment Systems (BBPS).[91][92]
In January 2023, PhonePe Technology Services Private Limited, a subsidiary of PhonePe, obtained regulatory approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as an Account Aggregator.[73]
In March 2023, PhonePe obtained an In-principle approval from the RBI to serve as a Payment Aggregator.[93]
Legal challenges
On 14 January 2017, ICICI bank blocked PhonePe transactions, citing the reasons that it did not meet the NPCI guidelines.[97][98] Initially, on 19 January 2017, NPCI instructed ICICI to allow UPI transactions via PhonePe.[99] During this period, Airtel too blocked PhonePe transactions on its platforms.[100] A day later, on 20 January 2017, NPCI renounced the previous instructions citing the reason that PhonePe indeed violated the UPI norms.[101][102][103]
After this, PhonePe closed its operations on Flipkart's website,[104] to align itself with the terms stated in the updated verdict from NPCI. By February, 2017, PhonePe resolved the issues with ICICI and Airtel.[105][106]
ESOP
PhonePe allots employee stock options (ESOPs) to its full time employees.[107] In November 2021, PhonePe was reported to have conducted a buyback of ESOPs worth ₹1.35 billion (US$17 million), covering 75% of its current workforce who have completed at least a year of service.[108]