said on Monday it has bought homegrown freelancing network in an all-cash deal of an undisclosed amount to leverage its network of freelance micro-entrepreneurs and help corporates and enterprises acquire more customers.
The startup said the acquisition would also help GigIndia create millions of opportunities for freelance micro-entrepreneurs across the country. According to reports cited by PhonePe, India's freelance community is expected to grow to $20-$30 billion by 2025.
"GigIndia has been playing a pivotal role in transforming the way businesses are collaborating with an intent of empowering freelance micro-entrepreneurs with ready available opportunities," Aditya Shirole, COO at GigIndia, said in a press release.
PhonePe has over 365 million registered users on its platform and is accepted at over 27 million merchant outlets across India.
The startup's offline transactions showed a 200 percent growth over the last year, it said recently. It processed over a billion peer-to-merchant transactions in the last month of 2021.
GigIndia founders: Sahil Sharma (left) and Aditya Shirole
PhonePe's acquisition of GigIndia is expected to add to its user base and leverage the platform to enterprises and corporates so they could use it to scale.
Pune-based GigIndia was founded in 2017 by engineering students Sahil Sharma and Aditya Shirole. The B2B marketplace for on-demand work completion has recorded a 3X growth in revenue since the beginning of the pandemic.
GigIndia has worked with over 100 enterprise customers, and its app had over a million installs on the Google Play Store. It has a registered workforce of over one million workers across 200 cities in India.
"We are excited to welcome GigIndia's team to PhonePe and leverage their domain expertise to offer value-added services to our enterprise partners, helping them scale, expand, and grow their businesses," said Vivek Lohcheb, Head - Offline Business, PhonePe, in the press release.
Edited by Suman Singh