PhonePe company profile: valuation, funding & revenue

This PhonePe company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. PhonePe works in fintech, with a focus on digital payments and financial services. It was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. Its latest valuation on record is About US$12 billion (January 2023). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.

Revenue

₹3,919 crore revenue from operations, up 22%, for the six months to September 2025 — Half-year revenue from operations (IPO prospectus, as reported), as of H1 FY2026. Source: TechCrunch.

Funding history

PhonePe timeline

Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.

• 2015 — PhonePe is founded in Bengaluru by Sameer Nigam (CEO), Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer.
• Jan 2023 — Equity round: See source, valuing the company at About US$12B. Investors: General Atlantic and others.
• H1 FY2026 — Loss: ₹1,444 crore for the six months to September 2025, wider than ₹1,203 crore a year earlier.
• February 2026 — UPI transactions: About 9.3 billion transactions worth roughly ₹13.1 trillion in February 2026.
• March 2026 — IPO: Paused in March 2026 due to market conditions; company says it remains committed to listing.

Investors

Overview

PhonePe is India's largest payments app by UPI transaction volume. Hundreds of millions of people use it to pay shops by scanning QR codes, send money to friends, pay bills and recharge phones, using India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI). PhonePe has expanded into insurance, mutual funds, lending, stock broking, a merchant payment business and even an app store, aiming to become a broad financial services platform.

Sameer Nigam, the CEO, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer founded PhonePe in Bengaluru in 2015. All three had worked at Flipkart, which acquired PhonePe in 2016. When Walmart bought Flipkart in 2018, PhonePe came with it, and in 2022 PhonePe was separated from Flipkart into its own company, still majority-owned by Walmart.

How PhonePe makes money

UPI payments between people and to most merchants carry no fees for users, which means PhonePe's largest activity earns little directly. Its revenue instead comes from:

• Merchant services: payment devices such as speaker boxes that announce payments, payment gateways and other tools for businesses.
• Bill payments and recharges: commissions from billers and telecom companies.
• Financial products: commissions and fees on insurance, mutual funds, loans and stock broking.
• Advertising and other services.

The strategy is to use PhonePe's enormous user base and daily engagement to sell higher-margin financial products.

Revenue and losses

PhonePe's IPO documents give a recent picture. For the six months to September 2025, revenue from operations rose 22% to ₹3,919 crore (about US$424 million), while the loss widened to ₹1,444 crore (about US$156 million) from ₹1,203 crore a year earlier. Much of the loss relates to non-cash items such as employee stock options; the company has said its underlying operations have improved. Even so, it isn't yet profitable on a reported basis.

Valuation and funding

In January 2023, after separating from Flipkart, PhonePe raised money from investors including General Atlantic at a valuation of about US$12 billion. Walmart remains the majority owner. Tiger Global and Microsoft are among other shareholders.

The IPO

PhonePe filed IPO documents with India's securities regulator and updated them in January 2026, planning a listing on Indian exchanges later in 2026. The offering was structured entirely as a sale of existing shares, with Walmart selling a portion while keeping control, and Tiger Global and Microsoft planning to sell their entire stakes. Reports suggested a target valuation of around US$15 billion at first, later lower. In March 2026, PhonePe paused the IPO, citing volatile markets and geopolitical tensions, and said it remained committed to listing once conditions improved. It rejected reports that valuation disagreements caused the pause.

UPI market share

PhonePe processes the largest share of UPI transactions, ahead of Google Pay. In February 2026 it handled about 9.3 billion transactions worth roughly ₹13.1 trillion. Indian regulators have long planned a cap on any single app's share of UPI volume to reduce concentration, with the deadline repeatedly extended. If enforced, a cap could force PhonePe to stop growing its share, which is a significant regulatory risk.

Competitive landscape

PhonePe competes with Google Pay, Paytm, banks' apps and newer entrants in payments, and with a range of fintechs in insurance, lending and investing, including CRED and brokers like Groww and Zerodha. Its advantages are scale, brand recognition, merchant reach and Walmart's backing.

What to watch next

Watch the timing of the IPO, the UPI market share cap, progress towards profitability, growth of financial services revenue, and any changes in UPI pricing rules.

Key facts at a glance

PhonePe is a Bengaluru fintech founded in 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer, majority-owned by Walmart. It leads India's UPI market by transaction volume. It reported revenue from operations of ₹3,919 crore and a loss of ₹1,444 crore for the six months to September 2025. It was valued at about US$12 billion in January 2023 and paused its Indian IPO in March 2026.

The economics of free payments

India made UPI payments free for most users to encourage digital adoption, and it worked: UPI handles billions of transactions every month. But free payments create a puzzle for the apps that process them. They bear real costs for technology, customer support and fraud prevention, while earning little from the payments themselves. The answer has been to treat payments as a way to attract and engage users, then earn money from other services. That model takes time to mature, which is why many payments companies in India have been slow to reach profitability.

Why IPOs get delayed

Companies often pause IPOs when markets are volatile, because a poorly received listing can damage reputation and leave early investors with losses. For selling shareholders, waiting can mean a better price later. For employees and investors hoping for liquidity, delays are frustrating. Our guide to selling startup shares before an IPO covers options when listings are postponed.

Questions to ask about a payments platform's path to profit

• What share of revenue comes from financial products rather than payments?
• How much of the reported loss is non-cash, such as stock-based compensation?
• How would a UPI market share cap or new pricing rules affect growth?

The answers to these questions will largely determine the valuation PhonePe can achieve when it eventually lists, and how its shares are likely to perform in the years afterwards.

What this means if you're…

A merchant in India: compare payment providers on device costs, settlement speed and value-added services.

A fintech founder: PhonePe shows how payments can become a distribution channel for higher-margin products.

An investor: watch the UPI market share cap and the path to reported profitability.

Latest developments (October 2026)

PhonePe filed an updated draft prospectus with India's securities regulator on 21 January 2026 for an IPO structured entirely as a sale of existing shares, but on 16 March 2026 it said it had temporarily postponed the listing because of geopolitical uncertainty and market volatility, according to Jainam and Bigul. It said it would resume when markets stabilise. PhonePe remains India's largest UPI payments app.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.

1. TechCrunch