PhonePe

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PhonePe Private Limited

Type of Private

business

Type of site Financial service

Available in English

Hindi

Telugu

Tamil

Kannada

Malayalam

Marathi

Bengali

Gujarati

Odia

Punjabi[1]

Founded 2015; 5 years ago

Headquarters Ashford Park View, Bangalore, Karnataka, 

India[2]
 12°55′38.9″N 77°37′58.2″ECoordinates:  12°55
Coordinates
′38.9″N 77°37′58.2″E

Area served India

Founder(s) Sameer Nigam (Founder & CEO)[3]

Rahul Chari (Co-Founder & CTO)[3]

Industry Internet

E-commerce

Services Payment systems

digital wallets

mobile payments

online shopping

Revenue  ₹42.79 crore (US$6.0 million) (FY 2018-19)[4]

Parent Flipkart

Subsidiaries Solvy Tech Solutions Pvt Ltd

Website www.phonepe.com

Registration Required

Users 218 Million[5]

Current status Active

PhonePe Private Limited, d/b/a PhonePe, is an Indian e-commerce payment system and digital

wallet company headquartered in Bangalore, India. It was founded in December 2015,[3] by
Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari. PhonePe app went live in August 2016 and was the first
payment app built on Unified Payments Interface (UPI).[6]
The PhonePe app is available in over 11 Indian languages. [1] Using PhonePe, users can send
and receive money, DTH, recharge mobile, data cards, make utility payments, buy gold and shop
online and offline.[7] In addition PhonePe also allows users to book Ola rides, pay for Redbus
tickets, order food on Freshmenu, eaf,fit and avail Goibibo Flight and Hotel services through
microapps on its platform.
PhonePe is accepted as a payment option across 5 million offline and online merchant outlets
covering food, travel, groceries, movie tickets etc.[8] The app crossed 100 million user mark in
June 2018[9] and also crossed 5 billion transactions in December 2019. [10]
It is licensed by the Reserve Bank of India for issuance and operation of a Semi Closed Prepaid
Payment system.[11][12]

Contents

 1History
 2Innovation and Partnerships
 3Awards and recognition
 4Legal challenges
 5See also
 6References
 7External links

History[edit]
FxMart received its licence to operate on 26 August 2014. PhonePe was incorporated in
December 2015. In April 2016, the company was acquired by Flipkart.[13][14] and as a part of the
Flipkart acquisition, the FxMart license was transferred to PhonePe and it was rebranded as the
PhonePe wallet. PhonePe's founder Sameer Nigam was appointed as the CEO [15] of the
company.
In August 2016, the company partnered with Yes Bank to launch a UPI-based mobile payment
app, based on the government-backed UPI platform.[3][16][17]
Within 3 months of launch, the app was downloaded by over 10 million users. In 2018, PhonePe
also became the fastest Indian payment app to get a 50 million badge on the Google play store.
The PhonePe app overtook BHIM to emerge as the market leader in UPI transactions in August
2017.

Innovation and Partnerships[edit]

In October 2017, PhonePe launched a POS device built in India. The Bluetooth enabled POS
device looks like a calculator and works with AA batteries. The hardware uses Bluetooth
connectivity and enables payments through all the mobile devices that can access the PhonePe
app.[18][19]
In January 2018, PhonePe partnered with Freecharge. This partnership has empowered
PhonePe users to link their existing FreeCharge Wallets to the PhonePe app.[20] PhonePe has
also entered into similar partnerships with Jio Money and Airtel Money. [21]
PhonePe also partnered with RedBus, Ola and Goibibo to launch micro-apps on its platform to
build and deploy apps on its platform with a unified login and payments experience for users. [22]

Awards and recognition[edit]

 2018: recognized by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for driving the
largest number of merchant transactions on the UPI network.[23]
 2018: Best Mobile Payment Product or Service Category at the IAMAI India Digital
Awards 2018.[24]
 2018: Won the UPI Digital Innovation Award from NPCI in 2018. [25]
 2018: Won the SuperStarUp Asia Award in 2018. [26]
 2018: Awarded at the India Advertising Awards 2018 in the Telecom and Technology
category.[27]
 2019: Won the ‘Best Mobile Payment Product or Service’ at the 9th India Digital Awards
2019 organised by IAMAI.[28]
 2019: 'Best Digital Wallet' Initiative at the Indian Retail and eRetail Awards 2019. [29]
 2019: Awarded the 'Best Digital Wallet' initiative at the 8th Annual Indian Retail & eRetail
Awards 2019 organised by Zee Business and The Economic Times. [30]

Legal challenges[edit]
On 14 January 2017, ICICI bank blocked PhonePe transactions, citing the reasons that it did not
meet the NPCI guidelines.[31][32] Initially, on 19 January 2017, NPCI instructed ICICI to allow UPI
transactions via PhonePe.[33] During this period, Airtel too blocked PhonePe transactions on its
platforms.[34] A day later, on 20 January 2017, NPCI renounced the previous instructions citing the
reason that PhonePe indeed violated the UPI norms. [35][36][37]
After this, PhonePe closed its operations on Flipkart's website, [38] to align itself with the terms
stated in the updated verdict from NPCI. By February, 2017, PhonePe resolved the issues with
ICICI.[39][40]