Walmart-backed PhonePe Targets $9 to $10.5B Valuation, Plans $900M to $1.05B OFS

PhonePe is preparing an India IPO structured as a pure Offer for Sale that would not issue new shares and would put roughly 50,660,446 equity shares on the block to raise about $900 million to $1.05 billion. The filing with the Securities and Exchange Board of India dated January 21 lists the exact offer size as 50,660,446 shares and frames the transaction as an OFS, with the company itself not creating fresh stock.

Promoter WM Digital Commerce Holdings Pte Ltd, the Walmart entity that backs PhonePe, will sell the bulk of those shares and "will trim its stake in PhonePe by about 12%." Investor sellers named in the filing include Tiger Global PIP 9-1 Ltd and Microsoft Global Finance Unlimited Company, and reporting on the offering has described those investors as planning exits, with the phrasing that "Tiger Global and Microsoft plan to exit their stakes."

The IPO pricing aims at a company valuation in the $9.0 billion to $10.5 billion range, which implies a notable haircut from PhonePe's last private-market valuation. In 2023 PhonePe raised $100 million at a reported $12 billion valuation, and earlier confidential filings discussed in September had suggested the company might seek up to $1.5 billion and value near $15 billion. Regulators had been reported to have approved the IPO process around January 20, and the company is targeting an April listing window.

PhonePe's market footprint is substantial even as questions about monetisation persist. Data snapshots vary: PhonePe has been reported to have more than 600 million registered users in some counts and more than 650 million in others, and the company is said to provide payments solutions to close to 50 million merchants. National Payments Corporation of India data cited for August show PhonePe processed 9.8 billion of 21.6 billion UPI transactions, and recent volume figures place its UPI market share at more than 45% or "nearly half" of transactions in some months.

Analysts flagged in coverage note that a dominant UPI position does not erase the core challenge that payments in India remain a low-margin business, which helps explain why the company and its investors are choosing an OFS route rather than issuing fresh equity. If completed at the targeted valuation, the listing would rank as India’s second-largest fintech debut, behind Paytm’s roughly $20 billion listing in 2021.

Next steps for the deal include finalising pricing and clarifying whether the 50,660,446 figure is the maximum offer size in the UDRHP, confirming the precise mechanics of the roughly 12% stake reduction by Walmart, and completing the formal pricing and allotment process ahead of the expected April timeframe.