Walmart-backed fintech unicorn PhonePe on Tuesday said it has raised $100 million in additional funding from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, and TVS Capital Funds, at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. This comes less than a month after the company raised $350 million in a fresh funding round led by private equity firm General Atlantic.
The company has said previously that it plans to raise up to $1 billion as part of the ongoing financing round. The company expects further investments from leading global as well as prominent high-net-worth Indian investors in due course. PhonePe had said that it will be using the fresh proceeds to beef up infrastructure, develop data centres, and build financial services offerings.
The company also said it will also be investing in other verticals such as insurance, lending, and wealth management. Last year, PhonePe acquired the mobile platform IndusOS and wealth management platforms WealthDesk and OpenQ. With over 400 million registered users, PhonePe has outranked Google Pay and Paytm in the UPI space with a more than 45% market share in UPI transactions.
PhonePe’s current valuation of $12 billion also puts it ahead of digital payment unicorn Razorpay, which was last valued at around $7.5 billion. Both PhonePe and its closest rival Paytm have been reporting losses. In light of the plummeting stock price of Paytm since its debut last year, PhonePe’s IPO debut will be closely watched. Paytm’s shares have fallen 60% since its debut, with its current market cap at just over $4.3 billion.
PhonePe reported a loss of $248 million, while Paytm reported a loss of $286 million. Paytm’s revenues, however, are more than double that of PhonePe. For FY22, Paytm posted revenue of $479 million, compared with PhonePe’s $202 million. The company raised $90 million in November 2022 and was valued at $5.5 billion then.
