The digital payments network PhonePe has changed its status from private to public limited company, with the goal of being valued at $15 billion in its next IPO.
In a regulatory filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), PhonePe stated, "The members are thus advised that the firm is required to convert into a public limited company under the Companies Act, 2013, as one of the criteria for the process of initial public offering."
The company will now be called PhonePe Limited instead of PhonePe Private Limited.
Notably, PhonePe was the first Indian business to move its headquarters from Singapore to India. The Walmart-owned company carried out this entire 180-degree turn in 2022, paying more than Rs. 8,000 crore (about $1 billion) in taxes in the process.
As per the media sources, PhonePe has deployed advisors Kotak Mahindra Capital, JP Morgan, Citi, and Morgan Stanley and intends to begin its IPO (initial public offering) process in the first week of March.
PhonePe, headed by Sameer Nigam, last raised $100 million at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion in the month of December 2023 as part of a $1 billion investment round.
Walmart continues to hold the majority stake, with the Qatar Investment Authority, Ribbit Capital, General Atlantic, Microsoft, Tiger Global, Tencent, and TVS Capital among other key investors.
With more than 47 percent of the market share by transaction volume, PhonePe is the biggest participant in the UPI ecosystem.
While cutting losses by 28.6 percent to Rs. 1,996 crore during the same time, the company generated revenue of over Rs. 5,000 crore in FY24.
