PhonePe updates IPO filing as major investors prepare to exit

On Wednesday, PhonePe updated its prospectus for its upcoming Initial Public Offering (IPO). The filing details that existing investors Tiger Global and Microsoft are fully exiting their stakes in the Indian payments company. Meanwhile, Walmart, the majority shareholder, is retaining its majority stake while selling a portion of its shares. Specifically, Walmart is selling up to 45.9 million shares, which represents about 9% of the company. In total, up to 50.66 million shares are up for sale in this liquidity event, which is being driven by existing investors rather than PhonePe’s management.

According to sources familiar with the matter, PhonePe is targeting a market capitalization of around $15 billion in the IPO, which could raise up to $1.5 billion. This target represents an increase from the company’s valuation of about $12 billion during a funding round in January 2023. Founded in 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer, PhonePe was acquired by e-commerce giant Flipkart a year later. The company was later spun off after Flipkart decided on a partial split in December 2020. PhonePe and Flipkart completed their separation in December 2022, leaving Walmart as the fintech’s majority shareholder.

Today, PhonePe is the largest player in India’s digital payments market, leading the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem. According to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for December 2025, PhonePe outpaced its competitor Google Pay in both transaction volume and value:

• PhonePe: Processed about 9.81 billion transactions worth roughly ₹13.6 trillion (about $148.6 billion).
• Google Pay: Processed 7.50 billion transactions worth about ₹9.6 trillion (around $104.5 billion).

While PhonePe maintains its market leadership, its financial filings show widening losses alongside rising revenue. For the six months ended September 2025, PhonePe’s revenue from operations grew 22% to ₹39.19 billion (about $427.79 million) compared to the same period a year earlier. However, its loss widened to ₹14.44 billion (around $157.70 million), up from a loss of ₹12.03 billion (about $131.34 million) in the prior year’s period.

Why it matters

The IPO filing provides a rare look at how global investors are liquidating positions from the venture boom through India’s public markets.