The two companies announced this in a joint press release. Existing shareholders of Flipkart Singapore and PhonePe Singapore directly bought shares of PhonePe India. Walmart would remain the majority shareholder in both companies
Walmart-owned e-commerce platform Flipkart and digital payments platform PhonePe announced full ownership separation of PhonePe on Friday as the payments platform prepares to raise funds through its IPO.
The split from Flipkart makes PhonePe a fully India-based company, a process that began earlier this year. The transfer of their headquarters from Singapore to India was completed in October.
As a result of this split, existing Flipkart Singapore and PhonePe Singapore shareholders directly purchased PhonePe India shares led by Walmart. Walmart would remain the majority shareholder in both companies.
The two companies announced this in a joint press release. Sameer Nigam, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PhonePe said:
“Flipkart and PhonePe are proud native Indian brands with a user base of over 400 million each. “We look forward to the next phase of our growth as we invest in new businesses – such as insurance, wealth management and lending, while enabling the next wave of growth for UPI payments in India. This will help advance our vision of bringing financial inclusion to billions of Indians.”
Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said: “Flipkart remains committed to its goal of making every Indian’s dream come true by delivering value through innovation in technology and commerce while helping small businesses connect with Pan-Indian markets. “
Sources say the move comes at a time when PhonePe expects some major developments in 2023. The fintech is in talks with its parent Walmart, General Atlantic and other existing investors to raise about $700 million to $1 billion. The round is expected to more than double PhonePe’s valuation to around $12 billion, making it India’s most valuable financial technology company ahead of Razorpay, which is valued at $7.5 billion.
Experts believe that this funding will help PhonePe grow its operations and allow it to compete directly with the likes of Google Pay, Paytm and Amazon Pay in India’s fintech sector. According to industry insiders, PhonePe is also set to acquire fintech startup ZestMoney for $200-300 million, and the deal could close in the next few weeks.
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