PhonePe gets $60 mn from parent, FY20 funding declines by 40%

Flipkart-owned fintech platform PhonePe has secured $60 million in a fresh round of capital infusion from its Singapore headquartered parent company. The latest tranche takes the overall funding it received from the parent entity to $236 million in the financial year 2019-20, down 40% compared to $387 million it raised in FY19.

The fresh capital was raised via an equity issue of one million shares to its parent company, latest regulatory filings show.

The infusion is the fourth funding made by the parent company to PhonePe in FY20. The Bengaluru-based startup raised around $82 million (Rs 585.7 crore) in December, around $57 million (Rs 405 crore) in October and $101 million (Rs 698 crore) in July.

In December last year, PhonePe said that the number of transactions on the platform crossed the five-billion mark, with over 56% of transactions driven by tier-1 and tier-2 cities. It also said that it has linked over 150 million bank accounts to its platform.

In FY19, the company’s net loss widened more than two-fold to Rs 1,905 crore from Rs 791 crore in the previous year, despite a 400% growth in revenue to Rs 245 crore.

PhonePe operates its payment system through unified payment interface (UPI) and prepaid instruments services in a highly-competitive market. Paytm, Amazon Pay and Google Pay are some of its peers.

Two days ago, Resilient Innovations-owned BharatPe raised $75 million in a Series C round led by Coatue Management, a technology sector focused hedge fund, and returning investor Ribbit Capital. With the latest round, BharatPe has raised a total of $167 million in private capital so far.