India’s fintech ecosystem could be gearing up for one of its most defining public offerings to date.
PhonePe, the country’s leading digital payments platform and a key asset under Walmart Inc.’s umbrella, is reportedly preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) that could raise as much as $1.5 billion, pegging its valuation near the $15 billion mark. The company is said to be working toward filing its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) by early August, signaling its intent to debut on Indian stock exchanges.
While the timeline and structure remain fluid, investment banking heavyweights such as Kotak Mahindra Capital, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley are reportedly involved in managing the deal—highlighting the scale and global significance of the offering.
A Digital Payments Giant in Numbers
Since its inception in 2015, PhonePe has emerged as a dominant force in India’s real-time payments landscape. Built on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) rails, the company currently serves over 610 million registered users and processes transactions worth ₹340 million daily.
In the month of May 2025, UPI transactions hit historic highs—clocking 18.68 billion in volume and ₹25.14 trillion in value. PhonePe led the charge, accounting for 8.68 billion transactions valued at ₹12.56 trillion, effectively managing almost half of the country’s UPI activity. Its nearest competitor, Google Pay, posted 6.74 billion transactions, while Paytm came in at a distant third with 1.27 billion.
Together, PhonePe and Google Pay now control over 80% of India’s UPI ecosystem, underlining PhonePe’s pivotal position as it prepares to tap into public capital markets.
Strategic Moves and Market Positioning
In 2023, PhonePe secured $100 million in fresh capital from marquee investors such as Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global Management, and TVS Capital, placing its valuation at $12 billion at the time. Its current IPO trajectory suggests a healthy valuation bump driven by operational scale and sustained user growth.
Notably, PhonePe’s legal re-domiciling to India in 2022, migrating from Singapore, is widely seen as a strategic realignment to align with local listing norms—setting the stage for an IPO within Indian regulatory frameworks.
On the governance front, the platform continues to strengthen its leadership bench. The recent addition of Zarin Daruwala, ex-CEO of Standard Chartered Bank India, to its board marks a step toward deepening corporate oversight ahead of its public debut. Daruwala joins a board comprising global heavyweights including Walmart executives, Indian business leaders like Manish Sabharwal, ex-bureaucrat Tarun Bajaj, and co-founders Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari.
The Road Ahead
If successful, PhonePe’s IPO could become India’s most prominent fintech market listing to date, redefining how capital flows into the country’s rapidly expanding digital finance sector. It would also mark a key milestone for Walmart, signaling its continued commitment to leveraging India’s digital economy for long-term growth.
As the fintech race intensifies in India, PhonePe isn’t just leading—it’s defining what the next chapter of financial technology at scale will look like.
