PhonePe, the Walmart-owned payments giant, has raised an additional $100 million from existing investor General Atlantic as part of its ongoing $1 billion funding round. The latest investment round is also said to have taken place at a similar valuation of $12 billion, which was the pre-money valuation for the $350 million invested by General Atlantic earlier this year. So far this year, PhonePe has raised $750 million from investors, including Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, TVS Capital Funds, and Walmart. The company plans to use the funds to scale up its payments and insurance businesses in India, as well as launch and aggressively scale new businesses such as lending, stockbroking, ONDC-based shopping, and account aggregators over the next few years. PhonePe recently launched a shopping app called Pincode that connects consumers with their neighborhood stores and sells products from recognized brands and locally manufactured products. Pincode is a consumer-centric shopping app launched by PhonePe, which aims to connect consumers with their neighbourhood stores and provide them with the convenience of online ordering, discounts, instant refunds and returns. The app will enable neighbourhood stores to sell products from recognised brands as well as locally manufactured products like groceries, apparel, footwear and accessories.
PhonePe has stated that it plans to use the funds raised to expand and scale up its existing payments and insurance businesses, as well as to launch new businesses such as lending, stockbroking, ONDC-based shopping, and account aggregators. These initiatives are aimed at strengthening PhonePe’s position in the Indian fintech market and increasing its user base.