Tiger Global and Microsoft are set to make a full exit from PhonePe as the Walmart-backed digital payments major moves closer to a blockbuster public listing, offering a clear snapshot of how global investors are monetising bets made during India’s fintech boom.
Bengaluru-based PhonePe has filed an updated Draft Red Herring Prospectus (UDRHP) with market regulator SEBI after receiving clearance for its confidential filing earlier this week. The IPO will comprise a pure offer-for-sale (OFS) of 5.06 crore equity shares, with no fresh issue component, meaning all proceeds will go to selling shareholders.
Promoter WM Digital Commerce Holdings—owned by Walmart International Holdings Inc—will sell 4.59 crore shares, or about 9.06% of PhonePe’s paid-up equity, while retaining a clear majority stake. The remaining 47.17 lakh shares will be offloaded by Tiger Global PIP 9-1 and Microsoft Global Finance Unlimited Company, an Irish subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation. Both investors are exiting the company entirely through the IPO.
In total, up to 50.66 million shares are on offer, marking a significant liquidity event for early and late-stage investors. General Atlantic Singapore PPIL, which invested in a secondary transaction in 2023, remains the largest public shareholder with an 8.98% stake, followed by Headstand at 5.73%.
Founded in 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer, PhonePe was acquired by Flipkart a year later and has since grown into India’s largest digital payments platform. While payments remain its core business, the company has expanded into stockbroking, mutual funds, insurance distribution, lending and even an Android app marketplace positioned as an alternative to Google Play.
PhonePe continues to dominate the UPI ecosystem by transaction volumes, staying ahead of Google Pay. In December 2025, it processed 9.81 billion transactions worth ₹13.6 trillion, compared with Google Pay’s 7.50 billion transactions worth ₹9.6 trillion, as per NPCI data.
Financially, the company reported a 40% year-on-year jump in operating revenue to ₹7,115 crore in FY25, while narrowing net losses to ₹1,727 crore from ₹1,996 crore a year earlier. In H1FY26, revenue stood at ₹3,918 crore with losses of ₹1,442 crore.
PhonePe was last valued at about $12 billion in a January 2023 funding round and is targeting a higher valuation in the IPO, underlining investor confidence in its scale, market leadership and expanding financial services play.
Published on January 22, 2026
