New Delhi: Binny Bansal, a co-founder of Flipkart, is allegedly in discussions to invest between $100 and $150 million in PhonePe. If completed, the acquisition will rank among the biggest one-off investments made by an emerging company.
According to a source quoted in The Economic Times, although the amount has not been decided upon, negotiations have been ongoing and are most likely to conclude soon. With a $12 billion valuation, PhonePe has already secured close to $450 million in primary funding from PE heavyweights General Atlantic, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, and others.
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Walmart owns a 70 percent stake in PhonePe, making it the largest investor in the company. Other Flipkart shareholders, such as Tiger Global, Tencent, Qatar Investment Authority, and Microsoft, were also expected to purchase new shares as the company prepared for a new ownership structure.
According to Walmart International CEO Judith McKenna’s statement from last month, the online payments app processes around 4 billion transactions each month. On the UPI network, it is in direct competition with services like Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and WhatsApp Pay.
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In 2016, Flipkart purchased PhonePe, and Binny Bansal played a key role in completing the transaction. According to the source, he continued to serve on its board and had a tight relationship with Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari, the co-founders of PhonePe.
Bansal, who co-founded Flipkart with Sachin Bansal, is renowned for his investments in cutting-edge businesses like urban mobility startup Yulu, cloud kitchen platform Curefood, new-age insurer Acko, electric scooter manufacturer Ather Energy, loan platform Rupeek, and numerous others.
