PhonePe Pvt. Ltd has received a ₹150 crore fund infusion from its Singapore-based parent, according to documents sourced from business information platform Tofler.
As part of the transaction, close to 198,755 shares were allotted to PhonePe Pte Ltd.
According to regulatory filings on Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, Singapore, accessed by Mint, this is part of a fund infusion into PhonePe Pte Ltd by majority shareholder Flipkart Pvt. Ltd, Singapore, which owns close to 87% in the payments firm.
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The fund infusion is independent of the $700 million PhonePe is raising, which will be led by Walmart and minority investors such as Tiger Global Management.
Post the fund-raise, PhonePe will be valued at $5.5 billion, with Walmart owning almost 10% in the entity, along with other minority investors who will hold the remaining 3%.
Last week, PhonePe said it will be partially hiving off from Flipkart Group, and will set up an independent board of directors. Flipkart, which will continue to be a majority investor in the entity, owns fashion e-tailer Myntra as well as logistics arm Ekart.
PhonePe’s new board will include Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, PhonePe founders Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari, along with Rohit Bhagat, who is an independent director at Flipkart Pvt. Ltd.
The board, which will be finalized in the first quarter of next year, will also include two independent directors from Walmart along with senior advisors from the banking, financial services and insurance sector, Mint reported last week.
Following the corporate restructuring, PhonePe’s employee stock ownership plan (Esop) pool will also become independent of Flipkart with all employees having the right to receive PhonePe Esops.
This is in line with PhonePe’s plans to file an independent initial public offering (IPO). Mint first reported PhonePe’s plans to go public by 2023, and turning profitable in 2022.
With nearly 250 million customers and 100 million monthly active users, PhonePe chief executive officer Sameer Nigam said recently that the additional funding will be used by the company to take its services into rural areas and among low-income groups.
With this, the company will also invest in growing its financial services portfolio, which includes insurance and mutual funds, as it also looks to build products for kirana stores.
“Our focus will be on enabling ‘hyperlocal commerce’ for these 100 million kiranas and SMEs, as well as for the at-home and gig entrepreneur segments. Hyperlocal commerce will be a big focus for us next year (2021), as we continue pilots in this space,” said Nigam in a recent interaction with Mint.
Source: Mint