BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian digital payments firm PhonePe said on Tuesday it has raised $100 million from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global and TVS Capital Funds in a funding round that valued the Walmart Inc-backed company at $12 billion.
The latest round is part of PhonePe’s primary fundraise that took place last month through which the company raised $350 million from General Atlantic.
PhonePe, already India’s most valuable payments firm and among the country’s most highly-valued startups, said the second tranche of investments is part of its target of raising up to $1 billion after shifting its headquarters to India from Singapore.
The relocation, according to some reports, was to ensure easier entry into the country’s highly-regulated financial services industry, especially lending.
Having raised $450 million in six weeks, PhonePe said it expects to raise the rest from global and Indian investors in due course.
The company said it plans to use the funds to scale up its payments and insurance businesses in India, as well as to launch and scale new businesses such as lending, stockbroking and online shopping over the next few years.
Despite a funding winter, the Indian digital payments space has been a bright spot due to the popularity of online payments and startups’ ambitions to branch into the lucrative financial services space.
PhonePe, in which U.S. retail giant Walmart has had a majority stake since 2018, completed its separation from Indian e-commerce major Flipkart last year.
(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam and Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
