GFF 2026: PhonePe gets UAE licence; Sameer Nigam outlines next decade of financial inclusion

PhonePe is taking its payments business global, with founder and CEO Sameer Nigam announcing that the company has received its first international licence from the Central Bank of the UAE and will begin local operations in the United Arab Emirates.

Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) in Mumbai, Nigam said the UAE would be PhonePe’s first overseas market where it will operate locally, marking a shift from the company’s India-focused journey over the past decade. “PhonePe is going global,” Nigam said. “We just received our first international licences from the Central Bank of the UAE, so PhonePe will be launching operations locally in the UAE as our first foreign market.”

Nigam described the development as a significant milestone for the company, saying PhonePe’s first 10 years had been focused on building its business in India. “The last 10 years were about us being only within the country borders. Hopefully, 10 years later, we can talk about a truly global business,” he said.

PhonePe has already expanded UPI payments to several international markets, including the UAE, Singapore, Mauritius, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, France, Qatar and other countries.

The UAE licence takes that international push a step further, with PhonePe preparing to operate locally rather than simply facilitating UPI transactions for Indian users travelling abroad.

Brings UPI to 250 million feature-phone users

Nigam said the company also wants to address the needs of an estimated 250 million Indians who still use feature phones.

“What about the 250 million Indians who still don’t have a smartphone? How do we solve for their inclusion? How do we solve for their ability to make digital payments?” he asked.

PhonePe recently launched what Nigam described as the first UPI-based payment solution using the USSD protocol. “We have become the first UPI app to have launched feature-phone payments using the USSD protocol,” he said, calling it “the first of this kind of secure payment solution in the world”.

The company has begun rolling out the service, allowing users to make peer-to-peer transfers to mobile numbers or bank accounts, share their QR codes and receive payments.

Nigam said around 40% of feature phones in India have cameras, allowing some users to scan QR codes as well. The service also allows users to check their bank balance and transaction history, while bill payments are planned as a future addition.

PhonePe is also working on a voice-enabled, AI-powered helpline in English and 12 Indian languages to help feature-phone users understand digital payments.

Pushes daily savings products

Nigam also outlined PhonePe’s expansion into financial services, particularly savings, insurance and investments. “Historically, when you thought of mutual funds, you thought of the stock market. You thought of life insurance. It was something that the affluent could get access to and the underserved were left out,” he said.

PhonePe has introduced financial products designed around smaller ticket sizes, including recurring deposits starting at ₹100 and mutual fund SIPs starting at ₹10 a day. Nigam said the company had deliberately designed these products around the way many Indians earn and manage money.

“India runs on a daily basis. The value of the Indian economy runs on a daily working capital. So why should all savings products be monthly or annual?” he said. “We generally believe that mutual funds and deposits need to be solved for on a daily basis.”

PhonePe has also introduced daily gold savings starting at ₹10. “India’s favourite savings product continues to be gold,” Nigam said, adding that the gold sold through the platform is backed by 24-carat gold and insured.

Targets first-time credit users

On credit, Nigam said the challenge was not simply serving existing borrowers but building products for Indians at different stages of their credit journey. “There are those who have no credit score. There are those that are afraid of their credit score. And then there is everybody in between.”

PhonePe has launched credit products including credit cards and loans, while partnering with banks and NBFCs.

The company has also enabled more than 100 million Indians to check their credit scores, Nigam said, with many of these users looking to understand and improve their creditworthiness. PhonePe offers secured and unsecured loans, including gold-backed loans, vehicle loans and loans against mutual funds.

Nigam said PhonePe’s financial-services ambitions also extend to India’s small businesses. India’s economy runs on millions of small businesses, he said, while PhonePe has built a merchant network of nearly 50 million businesses over the past decade.

PhonePe has also introduced merchant lending products based on transaction data. Nigam said the company had already issued more than 1.5 million such loans, with 97% of borrowers taking their first formal loan.