PhonePe, India’s leading digital payments platform, has decided to put its plans for an initial public offering (IPO) on hold due to geopolitical tensions and a volatile stock market. The company, based in Bengaluru, announced on Monday that it would pause its IPO plans but remains committed to going public once market conditions improve. This decision comes shortly after PhonePe filed an updated IPO prospectus with the aim of listing on Indian stock exchanges later this year.
The recent escalation of tensions in the Middle East has had a significant impact on global financial markets, leading to higher oil prices and causing investors to pull back from stock markets. As a result, India’s benchmark equity indexes, the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex, have both experienced a 9% decline in the past month. Moreover, hundreds of Indian stocks have recorded double-digit declines since the conflict began on February 28.
PhonePe, which was valued at approximately $12 billion in January 2023, had initially targeted a market capitalization of around $15 billion for its IPO, with a potential fundraising of up to $1.5 billion. However, recent discussions with investment bankers suggested lowering the valuation expectations to about $9 billion.
Despite rumors of concerns about valuation, PhonePe has clarified that the decision to pause the IPO process is solely due to the current market conditions and is unrelated to the company’s performance. A spokesperson for PhonePe stated in an email that any claims regarding valuation concerns are baseless.
The IPO was expected to provide an exit for early investors, with Tiger Global and Microsoft planning to sell their entire stakes, and Walmart intending to offload up to 45.9 million shares, representing approximately 9% of the company while retaining control.
Founded in 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer, PhonePe was acquired by e-commerce giant Flipkart in 2016 and has since become India’s largest digital payments platform. It leads the Indian government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem in transaction volumes, surpassing Google Pay.
In February 2026, PhonePe processed approximately 9.3 billion transactions worth around ₹13.1 trillion (approximately $141.9 billion), outperforming Google Pay’s 6.8 billion transactions valued at roughly ₹9 trillion (about $97.8 billion), as reported by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
PhonePe was spun off into a separate entity from Flipkart in 2022, with Walmart remaining its largest shareholder. The company has expanded beyond digital payments to offer financial services such as stockbroking and mutual fund investments, as well as an Android app store positioned as an alternative to Google’s Play Store.
In the first half of fiscal year 2025, PhonePe’s revenue from operations increased by 22% to ₹39.19 billion (approximately $424.4 million) compared to the previous year. However, the company’s losses widened to ₹14.44 billion (around $156.4 million) from ₹12.03 billion (about $130.4 million) as it continued to invest in expanding its services.
