PhonePe was founded in 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer. It was one of the first apps to build on India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the government-backed real-time payment system that’s transformed how Indians move money.
Flipkart (Walmart’s Indian e-commerce arm) acquired PhonePe shortly after its launch, giving it access to millions of users. In 2023, PhonePe was spun off as an independent entity with a valuation of $12 billion after raising $850 million from General Atlantic, Tiger Global, and others.
The numbers are staggering. PhonePe processes over 6 billion UPI transactions per month, accounting for roughly 47% of all UPI payments in India. It has over 535 million registered users and 37 million merchant partners. In a country where digital payments have replaced cash for everything from street food to rent, PhonePe sits right at the center.
Beyond UPI payments, PhonePe offers mutual fund investments, insurance (through PhonePe Insurance), gold purchases, and an e-commerce marketplace called Pincode. The company also operates PhonePe Pulse, a data analytics platform tracking India’s digital payment trends.
PhonePe is headquartered in Bangalore, though it was redomiciled from Singapore to India in 2022. The company has been eyeing an IPO and expanded aggressively into financial services beyond payments.
