PhonePe has deferred its IPO due to heightened volatility amid the West Asian war. The company, however, assured that it was committed to the India listing and it will resume the public listing process as soon as the situation in the global capital markets returns to normal

PhonePe Defers Public Listing As Iran War Weighs On Market Stability

Online payments market giant PhonePe on Monday said that the company has deferred its IPO (initial public offering) due to heightened volatility amid the West Asian war.

According to a report by The Economic Times, the company, however, assured that it was committed to the India listing and it will resume the public listing process as soon as the situation in the global capital markets returns to normal.

“We sincerely hope for a swift return to peace in all the affected regions. We remain committed to a public listing in India,” said its chief executive officer Sameer Nigam.

Boasting over 45% market share in UPI as a third-party application provider (TPAP), PhonePe is the country’s largest digital payments platform.

According to the company’s DRHP, it had a cumulative registered user base of about 657.56 million and around 47.19 million registered merchants, covering nearly 80% of India’s 58 million trade and services merchant base.

Close to 65% of the company’s users came from Tier-2 and smaller cities as of 1HFY26.

According to experts, apart from PhonePe, some other companies were also reassessing their decision to list on the bourses to ensure that the market volatility does not affect the prospects of the IPO.

According to the report, 141 companies currently have regulatory approvals, valid for a year from the date of clearance, to collectively raise about Rs 1.64 lakh crore through IPOs.

PhonePe’s DRHP highlights that the payments application experience is increasingly being commoditised and indistinct; hence, players with the ability to build and control the full technology stack will have a powerful competitive moat.

“Among the listed peers, One 97 Communications Limited (Paytm) is the only player whose business profile is comparable to PhonePe’s businesses in terms of size (above Rs 10 trillion customer-initiated transactions) and business model,” it adds.

PhonePe is gearing up to expand its financial services distribution business, which includes loans, mutual funds and insurance instruments. As a result, the share of distribution in revenue has risen from 4% in FY24 to 13% in H1FY26.