MUMBAI: General Atlantic, a growth equity firm, has invested $350 million in PhonePe, which is valued at $12 billion. The investment is the first part of a total fundraise that started this month that could reach $1 billion. Following PhonePe's recently announced move to India and complete separation from Flipkart, the fundraising effort follows.
PhonePe intends to use the new funds to help scale up the country's financial services offerings and make significant investments in infrastructure, such as the construction of data centers. “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,” stated Sameer Nigam, founder and CEO of PhonePe. In order to facilitate greater financial inclusion, UPI recently introduced UPI lite and credit on UPI.
PhonePe was established in December 2015 and has more than 400 million registered users. Additionally, it has digitized over 35 million offline merchants in tier -2, tier-3, and tier-4 cities and beyond, covering 99 percent of India's pincodes.
PhonePe announced its departure from the Flipkart Group recently. As a result of this move, shareholders in both businesses will be able to unlock and maximize enterprise value while also being able to chart their own growth paths and build their businesses independently.