Walmart-Backed PhonePe Pauses India IPO Plans Amid Market Volatility

PhonePe, India's largest digital payments platform and a Walmart majority-owned company, shelved its planned initial public offering last Monday, citing geopolitical tensions and volatility in global capital markets. The decision came less than two months after the Bengaluru-based fintech filed an updated IPO prospectus targeting a listing on Indian stock exchanges later this year.

The offering had been expected to raise as much as $1.5 billion. Walmart, which owns approximately 71.8% of PhonePe according to Bloomberg figures reported by the Business Times, had planned to sell up to 45.9 million shares, representing about 9% of share capital, while retaining majority control. Tiger Global and Microsoft were also set to sell their entire stakes through the offering, according to PhonePe's IPO filing.

The pause reflects how quickly deteriorating market conditions can unwind months of preparation. India's Nifty 50 index fell more than 7% through the first two weeks of March, putting it on pace for its worst monthly performance since March 2020, according to Business Times. TechCrunch reported the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex had each declined roughly 9% over the prior month, with hundreds of Indian stocks recording double-digit losses since conflict escalated on February 28. Brent crude futures climbed to $104.97 at the time of reporting, reflecting the oil price pressure that has rippled through investor sentiment globally.

PhonePe said it will resume the IPO process once global capital markets stabilize. The company commands nearly 50% of all transactions on India's Unified Payments Interface, ahead of Google Pay, making it the dominant player in a payments ecosystem the Indian government has actively promoted.

PhonePe was founded in 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer, and was acquired by Flipkart the following year. Walmart's stake in PhonePe flows through Flipkart, which it acquired in 2018. For Walmart, the pause delays a financial event that would have let it monetize a portion of a bet placed squarely on Indian consumer digital infrastructure.

The IPO was expected to provide exits for early backers who have been waiting on liquidity. With Tiger Global and Microsoft both planning full stake sales, the delay extends their holding periods indefinitely, subject to whenever market conditions satisfy PhonePe's threshold for returning to the listing process. No timetable or market-condition trigger has been publicly specified.