Flipkart commits $500 million investment in PhonePe
, ET Bureau|
Updated: Oct 12, 2017, 01.30 PM IST
BENGALURU: Homegrown online retailer Flipkart has committed $500 million for its group company PhonePe, a payments platform that was acquired in 2015.
This is one of the largest single investment commitments in the Indian financial technology payments space and comes at a time when the top ecommerce players in the country are investing towards building a strong payments system. This newly committed amount brings it to a grand total of $75 million worth of infusion by Flipkart since the acquisition.
PhonePe recently received approximately $38 million from its Singapore-based group entity, Flipkart Payments, according to RoC filings. The company is confident about achieving its target of 25 billion digital payment transactions by next year.
"Financial technology and ecommerce are among the most visible faces of a new digital India that is powered by the youth and technology, and both are set for outstanding growth," said Binny Bansal, group CEO, Flipkart. "PhonePe is a critical part of our overall strategy at Flipkart to build a comprehensive ecosystem for our customers."
The financial technology system in India, especially payments, is undergoing a paradigm shift and market research shows India’s digital payments sector to be pegged to grow to $500 billion by 2020 representing around 15 percent of GDP, up from around $50 billion last year.
"The investment will be used to scale up our technology platforms and expand our merchant network and customer base rapidly," said Sameer Nigam, cofounder and CEO, PhonePe. "We have been growing at over 100% every two months this year, and this investment will help us maintain the same aggressive growth rate for the next two years."
The company which claims to be a leader in UPI payments continues to grow with over 16 million transactions on the back of Flipkart Big Billion Days last month. PhonePe’s annual run rate, as a result, touched a new high of $ 3.5 billion in terms of Total Payments Volume (TPV) in September.
This is one of the largest single investment commitments in the Indian financial technology payments space and comes at a time when the top ecommerce players in the country are investing towards building a strong payments system. This newly committed amount brings it to a grand total of $75 million worth of infusion by Flipkart since the acquisition.
PhonePe recently received approximately $38 million from its Singapore-based group entity, Flipkart Payments, according to RoC filings. The company is confident about achieving its target of 25 billion digital payment transactions by next year.
"Financial technology and ecommerce are among the most visible faces of a new digital India that is powered by the youth and technology, and both are set for outstanding growth," said Binny Bansal, group CEO, Flipkart. "PhonePe is a critical part of our overall strategy at Flipkart to build a comprehensive ecosystem for our customers."
The financial technology system in India, especially payments, is undergoing a paradigm shift and market research shows India’s digital payments sector to be pegged to grow to $500 billion by 2020 representing around 15 percent of GDP, up from around $50 billion last year.
"The investment will be used to scale up our technology platforms and expand our merchant network and customer base rapidly," said Sameer Nigam, cofounder and CEO, PhonePe. "We have been growing at over 100% every two months this year, and this investment will help us maintain the same aggressive growth rate for the next two years."
The company which claims to be a leader in UPI payments continues to grow with over 16 million transactions on the back of Flipkart Big Billion Days last month. PhonePe’s annual run rate, as a result, touched a new high of $ 3.5 billion in terms of Total Payments Volume (TPV) in September.
