The fintech company PhonePe, owned by Walmart, has secured $350 million from General Atlantic at a $12 billion pre-money valuation. The investment represents the first round of this month’s start-up fundraising effort, which aims to raise upto $1 billion.
PhonePe’s valuation, which was set at $5.5 billion in 2020, has more than quadrupled due to this fundraising round. PhonePe has joined the decacorn ranking with a $12 billion valuation.
To the ultimate $1 billion financing, General Atlantic will contribute a substantial amount of additional cash with Walmart, and other new investors, said the sources. Given that the other investments won’t come in for a few weeks, it was impossible to predict how the company’s cap table would appear immediately. As part of the total separation from Flipkart, the Qatar Investment Authority and Microsoft have contributed shares directly to the business.
The fundraising round, including local and international investors, comes in the wake of PhonePe’s recent move to India and complete independence from e-commerce behemoth Flipkart. PhonePe intends to invest the funds in infrastructure, including the construction of data centres and a scaled-up supply of financial services.
According to PhonePe, established in December 2015, the money would enable it to “turbo-charge” digital payments in India and promote greater financial inclusion. More than one in four Indians utilize the company’s services, with more than 400 million registered customers.
What officials said?
According to Sameer Nigam, founder, and CEO of PhonePe, “I want to express my gratitude to General Atlantic and all of our supporters, both old and new. We are an Indian company, developed by Indians, and our most recent fundraising will help us further accelerate the Government of India’s ambition of digital financial inclusion for all.”
The management team of PhonePe has pursued a defined purpose to advance payment digitization and considerably increase India’s access to financial instruments. They are still committed to promoting the usage of inclusive goods built on the “India stack,” an open API platform. According to General Atlantic’s managing director and head of India, Shantanu Rastogi, “This vision is consistent with General Atlantic’s long-standing commitment to supporting high-growth companies which focuses on inclusion and empowerment.
Recently, PhonePe declared its complete independence from the Flipkart Group. Several Flipkart shareholders, headed by Walmart, bought shares in the most recent split following a partial separation from Flipkart in December 2020. This decision will allow both enterprises to develop their businesses independently and design their own growth paths.
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