Walmart-backed PhonePe disclosed the investment in a filing with the local regulator on Wednesday. A company spokesperson confirmed the investment. The ongoing round values the Bengaluru-headquartered startup at $12 billion. At a $12 billion valuation, PhonePe is India’s most valuable fintech startup. It competes with Google Pay and Paytm, the latter of which is currently valued at nearly $5 billion. PhonePe dominates transactions on UPI, a network built by a coalition of retail banks in India. UPI is the most popular way Indians transact online — it processes more than 8 billion transactions a month. Google’s GPay and PhonePe currently process more than 80% of all UPI transactions. Seven-year-old PhonePe commands about 50% of all these transactions and it’s not slowing down. The company said last week it was on pace to process transactions worth $1 trillion annually. Walmart, which also owns a majority share in e-commerce giant Flipkart, said last month the separation of Flipkart and PhonePe was “very analogous to eBay and PayPal, where each of them operating independently can pursue their own initiatives.” More to follow. General Atlantic invests another $100 million in PhonePe by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch
