PhonePe

PhonePe is an Indian digital payments and financial services company headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. PhonePe was founded in December 2015, by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer. The PhonePe app, based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), went live in August 2016.

The PhonePe app is accessible in 11 Indian languages. It enables users to perform various financial transactions such as sending and receiving money, recharging mobile and DTH, making utility payments, conducting in-store payments.

History
PhonePe was incorporated in December 2015. In April 2016, the company was acquired by Flipkart and as part of the acquisition, the FxMart license was transferred to PhonePe and rebranded as the PhonePe wallet. PhonePe's founder Sameer Nigam was appointed as the CEO of the company.

In August 2016, the company partnered with Yes Bank to launch a UPI-based mobile payment app, based on the government-backed UPI platform.

In January 2018, the app garnered ten million downloads. In August 2017, the PhonePe app surpassed BHIM in UPI transactions.

In 2022, PhonePe became the first UPI TPAP (Third Party Application Providers) App to allow UPI activation through Aadhaar. A year later, it further expanded its services by launching international UPI payments, allowing Indian users traveling abroad to pay foreign merchants with Unified Payments Interface (UPI). As per NPCI's UPI ecosystem statistics, PhonePe currently holds a 50% market share by value of transactions in the UPI market.

In 2022, PhonePe obtained licensing from the Reserve Bank of India for operating a Semi-Closed Prepaid Payment system.

In August 2023, PhonePe introduced a stock broking app and web platform named Share Market, via its subsidiary PhonePe Wealth Broking. The platform allows users to trade in stocks and mutual funds, including intraday trading and pre-curated investment baskets.

In February 2024, PhonePe introduced Indus Appstore, a mobile app store. The app store offers over 2 lakh apps and games across 45 categories.

Innovation and partnerships
PhonePe helps merchants to accept payments through all UPI-based apps, debit and credit cards, as well as wallet (Including third party wallets) on the app.

2017
In October, PhonePe launched a low-cost POS device built in India. The Bluetooth enabled POS device looks like a calculator and works with AA batteries. The hardware uses Bluetooth connectivity and enables payments through all the mobile devices that can access the PhonePe app.

In January 2018, PhonePe established a partnership with Freecharge, allowing PhonePe users to link their existing Freecharge wallets to the PhonePe app. Additionally, PhonePe has entered into similar collaborations with Jio Money and Airtel Money.

2019
PhonePe introduced tax-saving funds aimed at assisting customers in minimizing their tax burden through investments in equity-linked saving schemes. In the same year, according to Economic Times report PhonePe became the first payment app to enable customers to place bids for initial public offerings through the UPI platform.

2020
In January, PhonePe became the inaugural digital payment platform in India to introduce international travel insurance. PhonePe collaborated with Aditya Birla Mutual Fund to launch the Liquid Fund, offering users the combined benefits of a fixed deposit and a mutual fund.

In February, PhonePe launched the chat feature on its app to enable its users to have conversations with each other within the app while requesting money or confirming the receipt of payment.

PhonePe launched Super Funds in May to aid long-term wealth creation by helping customers invest in equity, debt, and gold funds of mutual fund companies.

In June, the company launched domestic multi-trip insurance to cover all risks associated with all modes of travel within India at an affordable annual premium.

In July, the company formed a partnership with ICICI Lombard to launch Hospital Daily Cash insurance that covers expenses incurred during hospitalisation due to injury or illnesses. According to a Live Mint report, PhonePe sold 500,000 insurance policies on its platform in September. During the same month, the company expanded its Mutual Funds offerings by introducing seven new categories.

In October, the company ventured into motor insurance with the launch of car and bike insurance policies.

According to a report by Business Standards in November, PhonePe emerged as the largest platform for purchasing digital gold, capturing a 35% market share.

In December, Flipkart partially hived off PhonePe into a separate entity in order to access dedicated capital. As a part of this hive-off, PhonePe secured US$700 million in primary capital at a post-money valuation of US$5.5 billion from existing investors of Flipkart led by Walmart.

2021
In March, PhonePe became the first digital payments platform to cross 1 billion monthly transactions on UPI, clocking almost 1.3 billion transactions across all of its payment offerings, including third-party debit and credit cards and its own digital wallet.

PhonePe emerged as a significant player in processing transactions on the Bharat Bill Payment System, according to reports. It reportedly registered over 1 million UPI-enabled AutoPay mandates since the launch of the AutoPay functionality feature. It had also processed over 2 billion monthly transactions on its platform in October.

2022
In May 2022, PhonePe announced the acquisition of Wealth Management platform WealthDesk and Smart Beta Wealth Management Platform, OpenQ. The acquisitions were done with the aim of widening PhonePe's offerings in the wealth management space. In April 2022, PhonePe crossed 100 million transactions a day.

By September 2022, PhonePe had enabled the digitization of payments for 8 million merchants under RBI Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) scheme. PhonePe also tokenized 14 million debit and credit cards in compliance with the RBI's required card tokenization, to limit the possibility of fraud and protect customers' card information. In September, PhonePe also announced the opening of its new 50,000 sq ft office in Pune. In November, PhonePe became the first UPI TPAP App to enable UPI activation with Aadhaar.

2023
In January, PhonePe declared the completion of its domicile shift to India and the full separation from Flipkart. In February, PhonePe became the first fintech platform to enable cross-border UPI payments. In March, PhonePe hit an annualized TPV (total payment value) run-rate of USD $1Trillion (Rs.84 Lac Crs).

In April 2023, PhonePe launched a shopping app called Pincode. It is a dedicated shopping app that focuses on hyperlocal e-commerce, catering to the specific needs of users within their locality. The app leverages the power of ONDC, a technology platform developed by the Government of India.

In May, PhonePe introduced the UPI LITE feature on its app, allowing users to initiate low value payments under inr 200 on their app.

In May, PhonePe also became the first digital payments app to enable the linkage of 200,000 Rupay credit cards to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and processed a total payment value (TPV) of inr 1500000000 through Rupay Credit on UPI.

In June, PhonePe launched its Account Aggregator services, offered through its subsidiary PhonePe Technology Services Pvt Ltd (PTSPL). This service allows Indian consumers to securely share their financial data, including bank statements, insurance policies, and tax filings, with regulated Financial Institutions or FIUs, facilitating various use cases such as loan applications, insurance purchases, and investment advice.

In June, PhonePe launched its payment gateway aimed at a broader spectrum of offline and online merchants, including small and medium businesses, to improve access to digital payment solutions.

In June, PhonePe introduced merchant lending services on its platform, enabling banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to extend credit to over 35 million merchants.

In July, PhonePe launched Health Insurance platform with monthly subscriptions in partnership with insurers, to introduce the UPI monthly mode of payment.

In July 2023, PhonePe launched a Point-of-sale (POS) device allowing merchants to accept debit card, credit card and UPI payments.

In August, PhonePe SmartSpeakers introduced voice payment notifications for customer payment validation. Additionally, PhonePe launched a collaboration with Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan to provide a celebrity voice option for payment validation on SmartSpeakers.

In December 2023, PhonePe introduced a new Credit section on its platform. The section allows users features related to credit, including viewing credit bureau scores and managing credit cards and loans.

2024
In February, PhonePe SmartSpeakers introduced a celebrity voice feature in partnership with Indian actors Mammootty, Kichcha Sudeep, and Mahesh Babu. This feature enables validation of customer payments in English and regional languages - Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu - using the respective celebrity voices, catering to users in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.

PhonePe implemented cross-border UPI functionality with LankaPay on 15 May 2024. In Sri Lanka, Indian PhonePe users can pay with UPI by scanning the LANKAQR code.

Ownership and funding
In December 2020, Flipkart and PhonePe declared a partial split, with Walmart maintaining its majority ownership in PhonePe and the two entities now functioning independently.

PhonePe announced the acquisition of $350 million from General Atlantic, a US growth equity firm, at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. Subsequently, another $100 million was attained in primary capital in February 2023 from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, and TVS Capital Funds, followed by $200 million in primary capital from Walmart, and another $100 million from General Atlantic at the same valuation. This brings the total amount of funding raised by PhonePe to $850 million.

Licenses received
In April 2021, PhonePe Wealth Broking Private Limited, a subsidiary of PhonePe, registered with the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as a Stock Broker.

In August 2021, PhonePe Insurance Broking Services Private Limited, a subsidiary of PhonePe, received an insurance broking license from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). This registration allows the company to distribute insurance products from all insurance companies in India.

In March 2022, it  was also registered as a Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU) with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the Bharat Bill Payment Systems (BBPS).

In January 2023, PhonePe Technology Services Private Limited, a subsidiary of PhonePe, obtained regulatory approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as an Account Aggregator.

In March 2023, PhonePe obtained an In-principle approval from the RBI to serve as a Payment Aggregator.

Awards and recognition

 * In 2018: Won the UPI Digital Innovation Award from NPCI in 2018.
 * India Advertising Awards 2018 in the Telecom and Technology category
 * Fintech of the Year from BW Festival of Fintech Awards 2022

Legal challenges
On 14 January 2017, ICICI bank blocked PhonePe transactions, citing the reasons that it did not meet the NPCI guidelines. Initially, on 19 January 2017, NPCI instructed ICICI to allow UPI transactions via PhonePe. During this period, Airtel too blocked PhonePe transactions on its platforms. A day later, on 20 January 2017, NPCI renounced the previous instructions citing the reason that PhonePe indeed violated the UPI norms.

After this, PhonePe closed its operations on Flipkart's website, to align itself with the terms stated in the updated verdict from NPCI. By February, 2017, PhonePe resolved the issues with ICICI and Airtel.

ESOP
PhonePe allots employee stock options (ESOPs) to its full time employees. In November 2021, PhonePe was reported to have conducted a buyback of ESOPs worth inr 1350000000, covering 75% of its current workforce who have completed at least a year of service.