Retail giant Walmart’s shareholding in decacorn fintech firm PhonePe has dropped to 85 per cent from 89 per cent following its ongoing fundraise of $1 billion, the US based firm said. PhonePe has now raised a total of $850 million of primary capital in the current round till the end of May, according to news agnecy PTI.
A decacorn is a privately held company valued at $10 billion or more.
“During the three months ended April 30, 2023, the company received $0.5 billion related to new rounds of equity funding for the company’s majority-owned PhonePe subsidiary, which reduced the company’s ownership from approximately 89 per cent as of January 31, 2023 to approximately 85 per cent,” Walmart said in its latest regulatory filing.
Till April 30, the Walmart group firm has raised $750 million, including $200 million capital infusion from Walmart. General Atlantic and its co-investors have contributed $550 million in the ongoing $1 billion funding round of PhonePe at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global and TVS Capital Funds have invested $100 million during the funding round.
General Atlantic allocated the capital to India’s largest fintech startup in terms of UPI transactions, maintaining the same valuation as the previous transaction. In a statement, General Atlantic revealed that this latest installment brings the cumulative investment from the firm and its co-investors to $550 million. Earlier this year, in January, the asset management company initially infused $350 million into PhonePe.
PhonePe is looking to deploy the funds to strengthen its infrastructure, including the development of data centres, and to build financial services offerings at scale in the country.
