PhonePe plans to use these funds to build and expand new businesses.
Bangalore:
India-based digital payments firm PhonePe today said it has raised $200 million from Walmart Inc at a pre-emptive valuation of $12 billion.
PhonePe, already India’s most valuable payments firm and one of the country’s most valuable startups, said the investment is part of its fundraising effort of up to $1 billion.
It raised $350 million from private equity firm General Atlantic and $100 million from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global and TVS Capital Funds in the past two months, at the same $12 billion valuation.
US retail behemoth Walmart, which bought a majority stake in PhonePe in 2018, will continue as the majority investor, the Indian company said, without disclosing its stake.
Despite the funding winter, the Indian digital payments space has been a bright spot thanks to the popularity of online payments and the ambitions of startups to enter the lucrative financial services space.
PhonePe said it plans to use the funds to build and expand new businesses, including insurance, wealth management and lending.
When PhonePe was spun off from Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart late last year, which also moved its registered headquarters from Singapore to India, Walmart took a tax bill of around $1 billion for the move.
According to some accounts, the move was to ensure easier entry into the country’s highly regulated financial services industry, particularly lending.
(Reporting by Meenakshi Maidas in Bangalore; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published on a syndicated channel.)
