Flipkart-owned PhonePe receives Rs 698-cr infusion from parent firm

Flipkart-owned digital payments company PhonePe has received a fund infusion of about Rs 698 crore from its parent firm, as per regulatory filings.

"...the consent of the board of directors of the company be and is hereby accorded to allot 2,022,946 equity shares of Rs 10 only each at a securities premium of Rs 3,440 per share aggregating to Rs 6,97,91,63,700 only new equity shares to PhonePe Pvt Ltd, Singapore (formerly Flipkart Payments Pvt Ltd)," a regulatory filing to the Corporate Affairs Ministry showed.

The resolution to allot the said shares to PhonePe Pvt Ltd was passed at a board meeting on July 5, the document sourced by business research platform Paper.vc showed.

The company did not respond to an email query.

In March this year, PhonePe had raised over Rs 700 crore from its Singapore-registered parent entity, which was a part of the $500 million commitment by Flipkart.

The fund infusion will provide PhonePe more muscle to compete in the burgeoning payments segment in India. It competes against the likes of Paytm, Google Pay, Amazon Pay and others in this space. Interestingly, messaging giant WhatsApp has recently stated that it plans to roll out its payments service in India later this year.

Digital payments have seen significant growth in India after the government's demonetisation drive in 2016.

There have been reports that Flipkart is looking at hiving off PhonePe into a separate entity, a move that would help the payments company raise $1 billion independently.