Walmart Inc.’s PhonePe, India’s largest provider of digital payments, is preparing to file preliminary documents for an initial public offering that may raise as much as $1.5 billion, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The deal would value the fintech company at about $15 billion, and PhonePe is planning to submit a draft red herring prospectus for the listing as early as August, the report added.
According to data from Tracxn, PhonePe was valued at $12.6 billion in May 2023, when it raised $658 million in its Series D round of funding from General Atlantic, Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global Management, TVS Capital Funds, and others.
Last year, in an interview with Reuters, Walmart’s executive vice president for corporate affairs, Dan Bartlett, said Walmart’s Flipkart marketplace and PhonePe digital payments platform could take a couple of years to go public.
PhonePe’s rivals Paytm and MobiKwik filed for an IPO in 2021 and 2024, respectively. While Paytm is trading at Rs 884.50, 43% below its IPO price, MobiKwik is down 51% from its IPO price and was trading at Rs 235.8 on Monday afternoon.
