Walmart-backed PhonePe gets Sebi approval to go ahead with public offering
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Walmart-backed digital payments and financial services major PhonePe has secured a nod from the regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to go ahead with its initial public offering (IPO). Sources confirmed to Fortune India that the company had got the clearance and the updated documents would be made public over the next few days.
Market expectations
Markets are expecting a combination of fresh share issue along with an offer for sale where investors such as Walmart, Tiger Global, and Microsoft are expected to participate collectively to offload around 10% of their holdings.
In its preparation for an IPO, the company was demerged from the Flipkart group in 2022 with Walmart being its single-largest shareholder. PhonePe also moved its domicile to India from Singapore. Founded in 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer, the company currently has a 10-member board, including four from Walmart.
PhonePe’s financials
According to its latest filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, PhonePe’s revenue from operations rose 41% year-on-year to ₹7,148.6 crore in FY25, up from ₹5,064.1 crore in FY24. At the same time, losses narrowed to ₹1,727.4 crore, compared to ₹1,996.2 crore in the previous year. In its run up to the IPO , in an earlier interaction with Fortune India, Karthik Raghupathy, Head of Strategy and Investor Relations, explained that to improve the bottom line , there has been greater focus on process automation and unit economics, crossing and upselling of its financial products and improving efficiencies.
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“In early 2019, we made the strategic decision to drastically reduce payment transaction incentives (Cashbacks), lowering incentives from approximately INR 950+ Crs in FY18-19 to INR 15+ Crs in FY23-24. We were also the pioneers in introducing a nominal platform fee on Recharges and utility transactions. Despite these measures, we were able to hold on to our retention ratios, driven by our customer-first approach and industry-leading payment reliability,” he said.
According to Tracxn’s Geo Annual India FinTech Report 2025, the Indian FinTech sector raised a total of $2.4 billion in 2025, representing a 2% increase from the $2.3 billion raised in 2024 and ranks 3rd globally, behind the US and the UK. 2025 also saw 4 fintech companies hit the public market namely Pine Labs, FinanceBuddha, Groww, and Seshaasai.