Ahead Of IPL, Flipkart’s PhonePe Receives $107.6 Mn Cash Infusion

Flipkart owned online payment company PhonePe has raised INR 743.5 Cr ($107.6 Mn) from its Singapore-based parent entity PhonePe Pvt Ltd, formerly known as Flipkart Payments, according to a RoC filing.

In 2017, PhonePe’s parent entity Flipkart had committed an investment of $500 Mn (INR 3,451 Cr) to the digital payments company. This may be one of the last tranches of that committed sum, reported ET.

This fresh funds will be utilised by the company bulk up its cash position as it is an official co-sponsor for the TV broadcast of VIVO IPL 2019. Under this, the company has also announced Bollywood star Aamir Khan as the brand ambassador. For this upcoming match series, PhonePe will be launching a series of new TV ads featuring the actor. It has also earmarked INR 500 Cr ($72.4 Mn) for its promotional investments.

This development came in after it was reported that PhonePe is looking to boost its a valuation to $10 Bn and is aiming to raise fresh funds from private equity (PE) firms KKR & Co, General Atlantic LLC, Tiger Global and Tencent.

PhonePe refused to comment on the development in response to Inc42’s enquiry.

Prior to this, PhonePe had received a tranche of $65.8 Mn (INR 451 Cr) from Flipkart in August 2018. Earlier, Flipkart had also infused $79.6 Mn (INR 549 Cr) in March 2018 and $38.7 Mn (INR 267 Cr) in August 2017.

PhonePe has been looking to up its game as the digital payment sector continues to grow. In October 2018, it was reported that PhonePe had been looking to raise funds in order to catch up with its rival Paytm.

As of January 2019, Paytm recorded 221 Mn transactions while PhonePe and Google Pay clocked nearly 220 Mn transactions each. Currently, these three players are dominating the Indian online payment space.

Earlier in March, it was also reported that government-backed instant real time payment system Unified Payments Interface (UPI) had clocked in 674.19 Mn transactions in February 2019.

In order to step up its game, PhonePe had launched its own wealth management unit, PhonePe Wealth Services with an initial authorised capital of $7.12 Mn (INR 50 Cr) and paid up capital of $2.85 Mn (INR 20 Cr).

Following this, the company also introduced financial services for the millennial generation in January. PhonePe cofounder and CEO Sameer Nigam explained that with this initiative, the company aims to tap the growing base of millennials looking to manage their wealth.

Not only online but the company is also looking to tap the offline payment sector. Earlier, in November 2017, PhonePe launched its point of sale device to serve the needs of small merchants in order to get into further tie-ups with small merchants.