PhonePe has secured an additional $100 million investment from New York-based growth equity firm General Atlantic as part of its ongoing fundraising. With the latest tranche, the total investment by General Atlantic and its co-investors in Walmart-owned PhonePe is $550 million.
Phone said in a statement that the latest investment “confirms” General Atlantic’s belief in PhonePe’s business and growth potential. With recent primary funding from General Atlantic, PhonePe has now raised a total of $850 million in primary capital in the current round.
PhonePe announced that the company plans to raise up to $1 billion in capital after relocating its headquarters to India last year.
The current fundraising comes two months after PhonePe received an additional $200 million in primary capital from its parent company, Walmart, at a pre-funding value of $12 billion.
Earlier in February, PhonePe raised $100 million in primary capital from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global and TVS Capital Funds at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion.
Also read: UPI transactions should remain free for customers, NPCI clarifies
The company plans to aggressively use funds to build and scale new businesses such as insurance, wealth management, lending, stock brokerage, ONDC-based shopping, and account aggregators. According to the company, the fundraising will also help fuel the next wave of growth for UPI payments in India, including UPI Lite and Credit on UPI.
The digital wallet recently launched a new shopping app called “Pincode” which is built on top of the ONDC network. The app focuses on hyperlocal commerce in categories like groceries, groceries, electronics, pharmaceuticals, fashion, and home decor.
Within a month of its launch, the pincode app had more than 50,000 installs on the Play Store, according to the company.
With almost 450 million registered users of the PhonePe app, the company made a strategic decision to launch a new app rather than integrate it with the existing one. Fortune India reported last month.
Also Read: Paytm Shares Plunge 3% After SoftBank Reduced Its Stake
The company has also launched the UPI LITE feature in its app. It allows users to initiate payments as small as ₹200 with a single touch. The feature works via an “on-device” balance, which enables much faster, real-time payment solutions for low-value transactions like grocery shopping and transportation, even during the busiest time slots. Users can load up to ₹2,000 into their LITE account and make transactions of up to ₹200 or less at a time.
PhonePe announced its split from e-commerce major Flipkart in December 2022. However, Walmart remains the controlling shareholder of both businesses.
Like PhoenPe, many domestic startups, including Lenskart, Mintify, Insurance Dekho, FreshtoHome Foods, TI Clean Mobility, and KreditBee, have raised a combined $2.8 billion in 301 rounds in the January-March 2023 period, despite global layoffs and macroeconomic headwinds , according to Traxcn’s latest funding report. However, that’s down over 75% year-on-year, compared to $11.98 billion raised by domestic startups in 816 rounds during the same period last year. On a sequential basis, domestic startup funding declined 21%.
PhonePe claims to have around 46 million registered users, covering 99% of PIN codes in the country.
Also Read: PhonePe Users Can Now Use UPI in Singapore, UAE and Other Countries
