PhonePe receives Rs 743.5 Cr in fresh funding, ropes in Aamir Khan as brand ambassador
With Bollywood actor Aamir Khan as its brand ambassador, PhonePe is looking to incrase awareness about the benefits of digital payments for users across India.
PhonePe, the payments and financial services arm of ecommerce major Flipkart, has received Rs 743.5 crore as part of a fresh infusion of funds from its Singapore-registered parent entity, PhonePe Pvt Ltd (formerly known as Flipkart Payments), according to the filings with the Registrar of Companies (ROC).
Media reports suggest that this funding has come from Walmart.
Founders of PhonePe : Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari.
Last month, PhonePe had announced its partnership with Walmart India to launch PhonePe as a payment option at Walmart India’s 23 Best Price Modern Wholesale ‘B2B Cash & Carry’ stores.
The partnership was aimed to allow registered members of Walmart India’s ‘Best Price’ stores to leverage different payment options on the PhonePe app, including Unified Payments Interface (UPI), PhonePe wallet, third-party wallet, credit, and debit cards.
Also read: PhonePe says it has more than one million offline merchants in India
Meanwhile, PhonePe today also announced Bollywood actor Aamir Khan as its brand ambassador to help create awareness about the benefits of digital payments for users across India. PhonePe is also now an official co-presenting sponsor for the television broadcast of VIVO IPL 2019 which gets underway tomorrow.
According to media reports, this fresh fund infusion will help PhonePe increase its cash position with its entry to promotional campaigns during the Indian Premier League (IPL). Flipkart had committed around $500 million to PhonePe in 2017 to invest in advertisements and promotions for 2019.
Riding on UPI, PhonePe enables merchants to accept payments from consumers through multiple instruments like UPI, credit cards, debit cards, PhonePe wallet as well as external wallets.
Last November, the company had announced that it had crossed 1 billion digital payment transactions and reached an annual total payment value run rate of $38 billion.
Bengaluru-based PhonePe claims to be the fastest-growing digital payments platform in India with over 100 million users. Today, its customers can place orders on Ola, Myntra, IRCTC, Goibibo, redBus, Oyo, Treebo, etc. directly from the PhonePe mobile app.