Tiger Global and Microsoft are positioned to fully exit PhonePe, the Walmart-backed Indian payments startup. The company has updated its filing for its initial public offering, providing a clear view of how global investors are capitalizing on the venture boom through India’s public markets.
PhonePe recently updated its IPO prospectus, detailing the number of shares available for sale. The filing reveals that Tiger Global and Microsoft are offering their entire stakes in the company. In contrast, Walmart is choosing to retain its majority ownership, selling only up to 45.9 million shares, which represents about 9% of the company. In total, up to 50.66 million shares are being offered, creating a significant liquidity event for existing shareholders.
The company was valued at approximately $12 billion in a funding round in January 2023. For its IPO, PhonePe is targeting a market capitalization of around $15 billion, which could raise up to $1.5 billion. The offer does not include any sales by the company’s founders, indicating the share sale is driven by existing investors rather than by PhonePe’s management.
Founded in 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer, PhonePe was acquired by e-commerce giant Flipkart a year later. It has since grown into one of India’s most successful fintech companies. Starting with digital payments, PhonePe has expanded into stockbroking, mutual fund investments, and even offers an alternative Android app store to the Google Play Store.
PhonePe is the largest player in India’s digital payments market, leading the UPI ecosystem in transaction volume ahead of competitors like Google Pay. In December 2025, it processed approximately 9.81 billion transactions worth about 13.6 trillion rupees. During the same period, Google Pay processed 7.50 billion transactions worth about 9.6 trillion rupees.
The company became a separate entity after Flipkart decided on a partial split in December 2020. PhonePe and Flipkart completed their full separation in December 2022, with Walmart remaining the fintech’s dominant shareholder.
For the six months ending September 2025, PhonePe’s revenue from operations increased by 22% to 39.19 billion rupees compared to the same period the previous year. However, its loss widened to 14.44 billion rupees from 12.03 billion rupees.