Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal is in addresses to invest about $ 100-150 million in PhonePe as part of an ongoing backing round at the digital payments company, according to a report by the Economic Times. The sale, if it gets reused, will be among the largest individual investments in a new- age establishment, analogous to the $100 million bet taken by Flipkart’s other author Sachin Bansal in Ola in 2018.
“The quantum that he (Binny Bansal) is investing is yet to be finalised. The addresses have been on and are likely to close soon,” said a person familiar with the conversations. PhonePe has formerly raised nearly $ 450 million in primary capital from PE major General Atlantic, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, among others, in this current backing round at a valuation of$ 12 billion. Some of the being shareholders in Flipkart like Bansal, Tiger Global, China’s Tencent, Qatar Investment Authority and Microsoft, were anticipated to buy a fresh stake in PhonePe, as the company put together a new power structure. PhonePe competes with Google Pay, Paytm, Amazon Pay, and WhatsApp Pay, among others. In a statement released in December, 2022, PhonePe claimed to have a 50.2 percent request share in the UPI payment space in India.
Bansal played a crucial part in Flipkart acquiring power of PhonePe in 2016. He continues to be on the board of PhonePe and maintains close associations with the company’s co-founders, Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari, the report said. The deal is significant given the fact that the technology space is facing a capital crunch. In Q4 2022 earnings call, Walmart CFO John David Rainey said, “To me, this (separation) is veritably similar to eBay and PayPal. Each of them can operate singly and pursue their own enterprise. They don’t inescapably need to be tied together. This is an occasion to unleash and realise further value singly”. The separation set back Walmart International’s profit by 65.3 year-on-year, taking it from $ 800 Mn to $ 300 Mn in the December quarter.