PhonePe, one of India’s largest fintech platforms, today announced it has raised $350 million in funding from General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. The General Atlantic investment marks the first tranche of an upto $1 billion total fundraise that PhonePe has commenced in January 2023. Other new marque global and Indian investors have already been signed up for the second tranche, which is expected to close next month. The fundraise follows PhonePe’s recently announced change of domicile to India and full separation from Flipkart.

PhonePe plans to deploy the new funds to make significant investments in infrastructure, including the development of data centers and help build financial services offerings at scale in the country. The company also plans to invest in new businesses, including Insurance, Wealth Management, and Lending. The fundraise is expected to support PhonePe as it seeks to turbo-charge the next wave of growth for UPI payments in India, including UPI lite and Credit on UPI to enable greater financial inclusion for Indians.

Founded in December 2015, PhonePe has become a home-grown success story, with the company’s significant expansion powered by India’s emerging digital ecosystem. By building products and offerings tailored for the Indian market, PhonePe today has over 400 million registered users, meaning that more than one in four Indians are on PhonePe. The company has also successfully digitized over 35 million offline merchants spread across Tier 2, 3, and 4 cities and beyond, covering 99% of pin codes in the country.