In October, PhonePe, the digital payments platform, achieved a significant milestone by surpassing 5 billion transactions through the unified payments interface (UPI) for the first time. During the same month, UPI recorded a total of 11 billion transactions amounting to Rs 17.16 trillion, with PhonePe contributing nearly 47% of the total transaction volume. According to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), PhonePe, led by Sameer Nigam, recorded a value of Rs 8.38 trillion, or Rs 838,371.70 crore. In the preceding months of September and August, PhonePe had registered 4.97 billion and 4.98 billion transactions, respectively.
Following PhonePe, Google Pay secured the second position with 4.13 billion transactions valued at Rs 5.89 trillion, while Paytm ranked third with 1.41 billion transactions worth Rs 1.67 trillion.
PhonePe has consistently led the UPI ecosystem for the past three years, surpassing Google Pay in November 2020 and maintaining its top position in terms of UPI transactions since then. The platform also boasts the highest number of users, with 50 crore (500 million) registered users and over 3.7 crore (37 million) merchants. In comparison, Google Pay reported 150 million users across 40 countries, including India, in April.
Beyond payments, PhonePe has expanded its services to include insurance, mutual funds, stockbroking, and lending. In August, the platform entered the stock broking sector with Share(dot)Market under its subsidiary PhonePe Wealth Broking Pvt. Ltd. Each vertical now has a designated CEO, with Hemant Gala leading the lending business and Vishal Gupta, Vivek Lohcheb, and Ujjwal Jain overseeing insurance, Pincode, and Share.Market, respectively.
Since January, PhonePe has raised $850 million in its ongoing funding round, securing funds across five tranches at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. Before this funding, PhonePe completed its full separation from the e-commerce marketplace Flipkart, becoming a fully India-domiciled company.
For the fiscal year ending in March 2023, PhonePe reported a remarkable 77% increase in revenue to Rs 2,914 crore. However, its EBITDA for the payment business stood at negative Rs 1,755 crore in FY23, compared to Rs 1,612 crore in FY22, according to the company’s statement.
