PhonePe raises $200 million in additional funding from Walmart

This new funding comes as a part of PhonePe's ongoing fundraise of up to $1 billion in capital, following its domicile shift to India last year

PhonePe, one of India's largest fintech platforms, on March 17 said it has raised an additional $200 million (around ₹1,649 crore) in primary capital from Walmart, at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion.

This new funding comes as a part of PhonePe's ongoing fundraise of up to $1 billion in capital, following its domicile shift to India last year. With this tranche, the company has raised $650 million (around ₹5,360 crore) from several global investors, PhonePe said in a statement.

The $12 billion pre-money valuation makes Walmart-owned PhonePe the most valuable fintech in the country, surpassing payment services provider, Razorpay which was last valued at $7.5 billion. PhonePe competes with Google Pay and Paytm.

"The company expects further investments, which will be announced in due course," the statement said. "PhonePe plans to deploy these funds to build and scale new businesses like insurance, wealth management, lending, stockbroking, ONDC-based shopping and account aggregators."

The fundraise will also help PhonePe turbo-charge the next wave of growth for UPI payments in India, including UPI lite and Credit on UPI.

Speaking on the fundraise, Sameer Nigam, CEO and Founder of PhonePe said, "We would like to thank Walmart, our majority investor, for their continued support of our long-term aspirations. We are excited about the next phase of our growth as we build new offerings for Indian consumers and merchants, along with enabling financial inclusion across the nation".

The statement, however, did not give how much shareholding Walmart has in PhonePe now.