PhonePe Eyes Massive IPO Amid Surging UPI Growth
New Delhi, June 23, 2025 – Digital payments leader PhonePe is preparing to file draft papers for a landmark $1.5 billion initial public offering (IPO) by early August 2025, with a valuation target of around $15 billion, Bloomberg reported. If successful, the offering could mark one of the largest public market debuts by an Indian fintech.
The company, a Walmart Inc. subsidiary, is in the final stages of drafting its DRHP (Draft Red Herring Prospectus) for submission to SEBI. Though the timeline is fluid, investment banking majors like Kotak Mahindra Capital, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley have already been roped in to manage the IPO.
Founded in 2015, PhonePe has emerged as a dominant force on India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), leading in both transaction volume and value. As of May 2025, UPI transactions hit an all-time high of 18.68 billion, totaling ₹25.14 trillion in value. Of these, PhonePe processed 8.68 billion transactions worth ₹12.56 trillion—nearly 50% of all UPI traffic.
🚀 Dominance in UPI & Fintech Ecosystem
With over 610 million registered users, PhonePe continues to outpace competitors like Google Pay (6.74 billion transactions in May 2025) and Paytm (1.27 billion). Together, PhonePe and Google Pay account for over 80% of UPI activity, showcasing a duopoly in India’s mobile payments market.
In 2023, PhonePe raised $100 million in funding from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, and TVS Capital, valuing the firm at $12 billion at that time. The planned IPO aims to build on that momentum.
🏛️ Legal Shift and Board Expansion
Anticipating a domestic listing, PhonePe relocated its legal domicile from Singapore to India in 2022. The company has also fortified its leadership in the lead-up to the IPO. Earlier this month, Zarin Daruwala, ex-CEO of Standard Chartered India and a former ICICI Bank executive, joined PhonePe’s board.
Other key board members include:
- John David Rainey, Donna Morris, and Leigh Hopkins from Walmart
- Manish Sabharwal, Vice Chairman, TeamLease Services
- Tarun Bajaj, former Indian bureaucrat
- Co-founders Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari
- Chairman Rohit Bhagat
