Flipkart puts Rs 1,300 crore into PhonePe

TNN | Apr 28, 2020, 12:53 IST

(Representative image)

BENGALURU: PhonePe, the payments unit of Flipkart group, has received capital infusion of close to Rs 1,300 crore from its Singapore-based parent entity Flipkart, according to Paper.vc, a business intelligence firm. The capital infusion, which took place in two tranches, comes at a time when most businesses are cutting down on new investments due to challenges thrown up by the coronavirus.
On top of that, WhatsApp, whose parent firm Facebook just invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms, might emerge as a new challenger to PhonePe on the e-payments network of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which also counts biggies like Google Pay, Paytm and Amazon Pay.
The capital allocation happened on April 18 and April 21. A source close to PhonePe confirmed it has received about Rs 213 crore already. “Rest of the capital should follow as overall capital commitment is larger,” this person said. A PhonePe spokesperson did not immediately respond to TOI’s queries.
The new capital coming in PhonePe right now is of importance as it held multiple rounds of talks with large investors last year to raise external capital. Among the investors, China’s Tencent has been one of the biggest names it has been in talks with.
Now, under the new government rules, such Chinese investment would require the government’s approval, which digital companies fear may stretch the process longer. PhonePe has been looking at a valuation of $7-8 billion.