PhonePe Separates From Flipkart Ahead Of Public Listing

As part of this transaction, existing Flipkart Singapore and PhonePe Singapore shareholders have acquired shares directly in PhonePe India.

PhonePe has now relocated its domicile from Singapore to India, a process that began earlier in the year.

Walmart will, however, remain the majority shareholder of both businesses.

Separating these businesses will allow them to grow independently and develop industry-leading products and services that are accessible to Indians, the two companies said in a joint release.

It will also create new opportunities for investors to participate in the Indian tech ecosystem, helping unlock and maximizing enterprise value for shareholders of the two companies, the companies added.

PhonePe plans to go public once its core businesses turn profitable, which the firm hopes to achieve by 2023.

“Flipkart and PhonePe are proud, homegrown Indian brands with a user base upwards of 400 million each. We are looking forward to the next phase of our growth as we invest in new businesses—such as insurance, wealth management and lending, while also enabling the next wave of growth for UPI payments in India. This will help propel our vision to provide billions of Indians with financial inclusion," said Sameer Nigam, founder and chief executive officer of PhonePe.

Founded in 2015 by Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer, PhonePe forayed into financial services in 2017 and has since introduced several mutual funds and insurance products on the platform.

The company was acquired by the Flipkart Group in 2016. It claims to have more than 400 million registered users and 35 million offline merchants spread across India, covering 99% of pin codes in the country.

“We are confident that PhonePe will continue to scale and achieve its vision of providing financial inclusion to millions of Indians. Flipkart stays committed to its purpose to empower every Indian’s dream by delivering value through innovation in technology and commerce while helping small businesses connect to pan-India markets," said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart Group.