Flipkart-owned PhonePe posts Rs 3 crore revenue for 2016-17
Flipkart-owned digital payments platform PhonePe posted a revenue of Rs 3.03 crore for the financial year 2016-17, compared with Rs 19 lakh in the previous financial year, as per the company’s filings with the Registrar of Companies.
The company is yet to file its full financial report.
Founders of PhonePe (L to R): Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari
The development comes just days after Singapore-based holding company Flipkart Ltd posted a 29 percent rise in revenue for 2016-17 to Rs 19,854 crore.
PhonePe, formerly FX Mart, was acquired by Flipkart in 2016. It had secured a funding of Rs 254 crore in October 2017 from Singapore-based group entity Flipkart Payment after having raised Rs 83 crore from the same group entity in October 2016.
Flipkart had received funding of nearly $2.5 billion from Japanese internet major Softbank.
Flipkart Payments, a subsidiary of the Singapore-based umbrella entity Flipkart Ltd, holds 99.6 percent stake in PhonePe. The remainder stake is owned by another group entity Flipkart Logistics.
Flipkart has been aggressive in capturing the digital payments market through PhonePe, and has taken several initiatives such as allowing customers to buy pure gold on the app, and partnering with Freecharge.
A recent PhonePe blog post claims, “We are currently live across more than 60,000 online and offline merchants including MakeMyTrip, PVR, Cleartrip, 1mg, FreshMenu, Faasos and Abhibus, and most national offline chains like Café Coffee Day, Apollo Pharmacy, KFC, Barista, Spencer’s, FoodWorld etc”.
Post the demonetisation of high-value currency notes in November 2016, the fintech sector has seen the entry of new players. While Google launched its UPI-based payment platform, Tez, last year, biggies Amazon, Flipkart, Uber and Ola also trained sights on the sector. The sector also saw significant mergers and acquisitions like Axis Bank buying Freecharge and PayU buying Citrus Pay.
