With the rapid growth of payment processing apps in the Indian marketplace, the Flipkart owned PhonePe is in talks with a couple of investors to raise fresh capital for the payment processing app.
PhonePe is trying to raise up to $1 billion to compete with its Alibaba-owned rival PayTM, a Livemint report said quoting two sources.
The payment processing app has raised $175 million from Walmart as a part of the $500 million commitment. The US retail giant remarked that the investment will consolidate its stand in the Indian marketplace. Walmart also plans to bring more strategic investors on board to strengthen its hold.
This recent drive by PhonePe is a direct outcome of the failed talks with Google with respect to funding. The search engine firm was about to start its own Payment app and therefore was reluctant in investing.
Till date, PhonePay has witnessed a steady growth with a user base of 100 million. However, it would be interesting to see how the Flipkart-owned app competes with PayTM that has 300 million plus users. Perhaps the investment that PhonePe is looking for will open new vistas for the app.