India’s largest e-commerce company Flipkart has acquired PhonePe, a Bengaluru-based mobile payments company, which was co-founded by ex-Flipkart employees Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari. The financial details of the acquisition were not divulged. PhonePe is building India’s a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) based product, which is, planned to go live in April. The interface will allow users to transact using their unique identification and mobile phone number or virtual payments address without sharing any other bank details. “Payments has been one of the biggest hurdles for mass adoption of online shopping in India. UPI has the potential of transforming the entire payments ecosystem in the country. The acquisition of PhonePe is in-line with Flipkart’s focus on driving innovation on the payments front. I am delighted that two Flipkart veterans – Sameer and Rahul are at the helm of this initiative,” Binny Bansal, CEO, Flipkart, said. The PhonePe team will transition to Flipkart but will function as an independent business unit, the company said in a statement.
Indian e-commerce company Flipkart has acquired PhonePe as part of its plan to build a payments business to compete with PayTM and Snapdeal. This Bangalore-based company was co-founded by two former employees from Flipkart and will continue to operate as an independent business in spite of the acquisition. The financial details of this transaction have not yet been disclosed. PhonePe is developing a product based on India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a new form of electronic payments processing where users make a financial transaction using a mobile number, payments address or unique identification. “PhonePe’s mission is to provide consumers access to their digital life through seamless payment solutions that are fast, secure and convenient,” said Sachin Bansal, co-founder & CEO of Flipkart. Online payments have been viewed as the main obstacle to mass uptake of online shopping in India; however, UPI promises to revolutionaries the entire system.