PhonePe targets IPO valuation lower than at its last funding round

PhonePe Ltd., India's largest payments app controlled by Walmart Inc., is aiming for a valuation of $9 billion-10.5 billion in an IPO in 2026, according to sources. That kind of valuation pegs the size of the PhonePe IPO at $900 million to $1.05 billion, but that's still smaller that the $12-billion valuation that the company enjoyed when it raised $100 million in 2023. Walmart is planning to offload about 12% stake in the PhonePe IPO, which will give an exit to investors Tiger Global and Microsoft Corp, according to a draft red-herring prospectus filed with India's market regulator. In all, the three companies will sell 50.7 million shares in the PhonePe IPO. No new shares will be on offer. PhonePe, which competes with Google Pay and Paytm in India, filed for its IPO in September 2025 and aims to complete the process by April 2026, sources said. The timeline could shift depending on capital market conditions, including any impact from the ongoing, and escalating, Iran war. PhonePe's listing would make it India's second-largest fintech IPO, after Paytm's $20 billion debut in 2021. Paytm currently trades at a market capitalisation of $7.1 billion. PhonePe financials PhonePe has more than 650 million registered users and processed nearly 10 billion of the 21.7 billion transactions on UPI in January, according to regulatory data. But payments in India remain a low-margin business. India launched UPI in 2016 and barred companies from charging fees for the instant payment service to spur digital payments and reduce cash use in Asia's No.3 economy. PhonePe's losses widened to ₹1,444 crore in the six months to 30 September 2025, from ₹1,203 crore a year ago, while revenue rose about 22% to ₹3,918 crore, according to its IPO papers. PhonePe IPO: Valuation Concerns Two portfolio managers, who met the company's management in IPO roadshows, said excitement around the country's fintech sector had cooled and that there were lingering questions around PhonePe's ability to monetise its user base—a key reason it may not achieve a valuation closer to its last funding round. ALSO READ | The need for an urgent rollout of UPI market-share caps “Monetisation remains a question mark. Active users aren't growing at the same pace so the game is all about upsell and that remains to be seen,” one of the portfolio managers said. Investors also see India's fintech market as overcrowded with little differentiation among players, said a third source, a banker to the issue.