© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A shopping cart is seen in front of the Walmart logo in this illustration, July 24, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian digital payments firm PhonePe said on Friday it had raised $200 million from majority backer Walmart (NYSE:) Inc at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion.
PhonePe, already India’s most valuable payments firm and one of the country’s most valuable startups, said the investment is part of its ongoing fundraising of up to $1 billion.
It has raised $350 million from private equity firm General Atlantic and $100 million from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global and TVS Capital Funds in the past two months, at the same $12 billion valuation.
US retail giant Walmart, which acquired a majority stake in PhonePe in 2018, will continue as the majority investor, the Indian company said, without disclosing its stake.
Despite a funding winter, India’s digital payments space has been a bright spot due to the popularity of online payments and the ambitions of startups to break into the lucrative financial services space.
PhonePe said it plans to deploy these funds to build and scale new businesses, including insurance, wealth management and lending.
PhonePe spun off from Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart late last year, when it also moved its registered office from Singapore to India, with Walmart picking up the nearly $1 billion tax bill for the move.
The relocation, according to some reports, was to ensure an easier entry into the country’s highly regulated financial services industry, especially lending.
