PhonePe filed its updated Draft Red Herring Prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India in January 2026, advancing plans for an initial public offering that the company is targeting at approximately $1.3 billion, equivalent to around ₹12,000 crore. The transaction would value PhonePe at approximately $15 billion, making it one of the largest fintech listings to be attempted on Indian markets and a significant test of investor appetite for high-growth digital financial services companies at the current stage of India's capital market development.
The offering is structured entirely as an Offer for Sale, meaning no new shares will be issued and PhonePe itself will not receive any of the proceeds. Instead, the capital raised will flow to the selling shareholders, who include Walmart — which holds approximately 72% of the company — alongside Tiger Global and Microsoft. The OFS structure reflects the maturity of these institutional backers' positions and their intention to partially monetise holdings that were built up over multiple years of private investment in one of India's most widely used consumer fintech platforms.
REVENUE GROWTH AND PATH TO LISTING
PhonePe's updated prospectus covers financial performance that includes operating revenue of ₹7,115 crore for the financial year ended March 2025, representing growth of approximately 40% over the prior year. That trajectory has been central to the company's argument for the $15 billion valuation it is seeking from public market investors, demonstrating that the business has been able to convert its substantial user base and payment volume into sustained top-line expansion rather than remaining a volume-driven but commercially thin platform.
The process of preparing for a public listing has been under way for some time. PhonePe first filed a confidential DRHP with SEBI in October 2025, giving the regulator an initial look at the business ahead of the public filing. The updated document submitted in January 2026 reflects subsequent changes to the disclosure, including updated financial statements and revised descriptions of the company's business and risk factors, bringing the prospectus to the state required for SEBI's formal review and consideration of registration.
MARKET SIGNIFICANCE AND SELLING SHAREHOLDERS
Walmart's majority stake in PhonePe traces back to its acquisition of Flipkart, which controlled PhonePe before it was spun out as a separate entity and incorporated in India. The willingness of Walmart to offer a portion of its holding through the IPO signals a shift from the patient capital phase of PhonePe's development toward a more active approach to capital allocation, with the public markets providing a mechanism for the retail giant to manage its position in the Indian fintech over time.
Tiger Global and Microsoft are similarly positioned as financial investors seeking partial liquidity through the public offering process. The presence of multiple large institutional sellers adds to the complexity of the transaction, as the allocation of shares among seller participants and the co-ordination of lock-up arrangements will need to be managed alongside the process of securing SEBI approval and building the institutional investor book that underpins any successful large-scale Indian equity offering.
If approved and completed, the PhonePe IPO would be a landmark transaction for India's public equity markets, introducing one of the country's most widely used consumer fintech brands to retail and institutional investors who have not previously had direct listed exposure to the company's financial performance and competitive position in the Indian digital payments sector.