The emphasis is on comfort and ease in today's world. Carrying currency has become cumbersome with the advent of mobile wallets and other digital payment mechanisms. Mobile apps are the preferred method for the payment of groceries, utility bills, phone recharge, etc. Even large transactions are now done digitally rather than in cash.
PhonePe is one such payment app that has made the lives of millions of Indians simple. The Indian app allows users to link their credit cards and debit cards with a mobile wallet for making digital payments. Instant money transfers can also be done through PhonePe. And PhonePe offers a lot more.
Read on to know more about PhonePe's success story, founders, competitors, revenue model, business model, funding, and more.
PhonePe - Company Highlights
| Company Name | PhonePe |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Bengaluru (India) |
| Founders | Sameer Nigam, Burzin Engineer, and Rahul Chari |
| Founded | December 2015 |
| Sector | Fintech |
| Valuation | $5.5 Billion (2020) |
| Parent Organization | Flipkart |
| Website | phonepe.com |
Phonepe - Latest News
PhonePe - About
PhonePe - Founders And Team
PhonePe - Journey
PhonePe - Business Model
PhonePe - Revenue Model
PhonePe - Funding And Investors
PhonePe - Competitors
PhonePe - Growth
PhonePe - Future Plans
Phonepe - Latest News
Flipkart has spun-off PhonePe as a separate entity by partially selling its stake in the digital payments company to Walmart.
PhonePe raised around $700 Million in primary capital from this divestiture. This will give the company more autonomy over its operations. This move puts Phonepe's valuation at $5.5 Billion.
“As Flipkart commerce continues to grow strongly serving the needs of Indian customers, we are excited at the future prospects of the group. This move will help PhonePe maximize its potential as it moves to the next phase of its development, and it will also maximize value creation for Flipkart and our shareholders,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart Group.
PhonePe - About
PhonePe is a digital payments company. It supports over 11 languages. PhonePe is the first payment app to be built on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Users can both receive and send money through this app. PhonePe also allows users to book Ola rides and order food on Freshmenu.
PhonePe - Founders And Team
Sameer Nigam, Burzin Engineer, and Rahul Chari are the founders of PhonePe.
- Sameer Nigam is the CEO of PhonePe. He is an excellent manager.
- Burzin Engineer is the CIO of PhonePe. He was the vice president at M-GO. He pursued his degree from the University of Mumbai. Burzin also has a master's degree from the University of Southern California. His Crunchbase rank is 4996 as an individual.
- Rahul Chari is the CTO at PhonePe. He started his career as a software engineer with Andiamo Systems Inc. He was also a senior software engineer and manager at Cisco Systems.
PhonePe - Journey
PhonePe was founded in December 2015. In 2016, Flipkart acquired PhonePe. The app went live that year. In 2017, PhonePe became the 1st UPI-based app to cross 10 million downloads. It consistently ranks among the top finance apps on Apple's App Store and Google Play Store. PhonePe gradually became the biggest driver of UPI transactions in India. In the year 2017, it hit the milestone of 1 million app transactions in a day. In 2018, PhonePe launched 'micro apps' on its platform.
Rishabh Rathi
PhonePe - Business Model
PhonePe is a UPI-based payment platform. The app enables the transfer of money from one bank to another. It has other features as well. Through its mobile app, PhonePe sells products and some services like groceries, insurance, food, etc. The company's job is to promote the products. PhonePe can be used for mobile recharge. Electricity bills and gas bills can also be paid via PhonePe. PhonePe launched a POS machine that is now seen in almost every shop and kirana store in India. People can use the POS system to make payments.
Ashwini
PhonePe - Revenue Model
PhonePe gets its commission from the promotion of various products on its app. It also collects revenue from a partner through the 'Switch' platform. Recharge points/centers usually earn a commission from the telecom companies when the customers recharge their phones. Likewise, PhonePe also receives commission when the users recharge their phones through the app. The company earns a commission from any online purchase users make via its app. PhonePe has a humongous user database. In today's date, data holds the key to profit. The database offers several valuable insights. The payment patterns of customers are determined by how much money they transfer and when. Moreover, one can deduce a customer's purchasing pattern along with the retailer's or store's details. PhonePe continues to grow its customer base through promotions and other offers on its app.
Devashish Shrivastava
PhonePe - Funding And Investors
PhonePe has collected $1.4 billion in funding till date over 12 rounds. Its recent funding round was led by Flipkart for INR 150 crores (~ $21 million)
| Date | Amount Raised | Round | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 15, 2020 | $21 million | Corporate | Flipkart |
| December 3, 2020 | $700 million | Corporate | Walmart |
| April 27, 2020 | $28 million | Corporate | Flipkart |
| February 26, 2020 | $59.6 million | Corporate | Flipkart |
| December 10, 2019 | $ 78.8 million | Corporate | Flipkart |
| October 22, 2019 | $ 54.7 million | Corporate | Flipkart |
| July 30, 2019 | $ 93.5 million | Corporate | Flipkart |
| March 22, 2019 | $ 101 million | Corporate | Flipkart |
| August 9, 2018 | $ 60 million | Corporate | Flipkart |
| April 1, 2018 | $ 42.7 million | Corporate | Flipkart |
| March 23, 2018 | $ 69.4 million | Corporate | Flipkart |
| October 4, 2017 | $ 33.4 million | Corporate | Flipkart |
Flipkart has been constantly funding PhonePe with Walmart joining the firm only on one occasion.
PhonePe - Competitors
The top competitors of PhonePe are Juspay, PCKT, Paytm, MobiKwik, BharatPe, Roomeo, and mobilPay.
- Juspay is an online platform used for mobile-based payments. Juspay was founded in 2012.
- PCKT is a fintech company. It provides payment services to consumers. PCKT was founded in the year 2003.
- Paytm is a pioneer of the Indian e-commerce payment system. It is a financial technology company. Paytm was founded in the year 2010.
- MobiKwik is an Indian company. It has a mobile phone-based payment system. MobiKwik was founded in the year 2009.
- BharatPe is a platform particularly for retailers and businesses. It is a QR-based payment app. The company was founded in the year 2016.
- Roomeo is a popular payments platform. It offers a fintech mobile app. Roomeo was founded in the year 2011.
- MobilPay provides mobile marketing and payment services. MobilPay was founded in the year 2010.
PhonePe - Growth
In the year 2019, PhonePe was one of the winners when it came to growth. PhonePe dominated the year with 857.22% growth. All of the leading payment apps grew by 88% from the year 2018.
PhonePe was already leading its rival, GooglePay in terms of the market share. The former touched new skies when the National Payments Corporation of India came out with the records of the total number of transactions in June. According to the data published by the authority, PhonePe recorded 1292.71 million transactions, which amounted to 262,565.88 crores whereas Google Pay trailed with 972.26 million transactions worth Rs 207,287.73 crores.
As per the month of July, 2021, PhonePe holds 46% share in the UPI ecosystem as compared to Google Pay's 34.6% share.
PhonePe - Future Plans
The company has plans to become more profitable by 2022. PhonePe is also helping its users discover several new products online. It is informing people when, where, and which shops are open and delivering such products. This is a unique offering. PhonePe has launched a new chat service for users and merchants it deals with. The payments platform is on track to achieve something extraordinary in the next 2 years.
Author: Purbalee Dutta
Source : https://startuptalky.com/phonepe-success-story/
Date : 2021-07-08T11:27:00.000Z