PhonePe registers loss of Rs 1,907Cr on revenue of Rs 246Cr in FY19
PhonePe registered a 2X rise in its losses compared to FY18 when the digital payments startup had reported a loss of Rs 791 crore.
PhonePe, the digital payment business of Walmart in India has reported loss of Rs 1,907 crore for the 2018-19 financial year while revenue stood at Rs 245.8 crore during the same period.
The latest filings by the company with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) revealed that PhonePe registered a 2X rise in its losses when compared to the FY18 when the digital payments company had reported a loss of Rs 791 crore.
These losses incurred can be primarily attributed to higher expenses. In FY19, the company reported to have spent Rs 2,153.2 crore, compared to Rs 840.1 crore in FY18.
The breakup includes items such as employee benefits, which stood at Rs 531.1 crore for FY19 as compared to Rs 130.1 crore in FY18, revealing a 300 percent jump. The other expenses category also registered a 125 percent increase between FY18 and FY19 to touch Rs 1,511.9 crore.
However, PhonePe also grew its revenue 5X between FY18 and FY19. The startup reported a revenue of Rs 245.8 crore in FY19 compared to Rs 49 crore in FY18.
PhonePe, which has been valued at around $7 billion by Morgan Stanley, has grown to become one of the key assets of Walmart following the US retail giant's acquisition of Indian ecommerce business Flipkart in September 2018. There were also reports that Walmart had initiated plans to demerge PhonePe from its parent company.
At present, PhonePe faces stiff competition in the sector from players like Paytm, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and BharatPe.
The startup claims to have over 150 million users. In August this year, PhonePe reported an annual total payment value (TPV) run rate of $95 billion to clock around 335 million transactions in July.
Services offered by the startup include sending and receiving money, DTH accounts, data cards, utility payments, and buying gold online.
(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)
