Flipkart acquires payment firm PhonePe

01 April, New Delhi

Online marketplace Flipkart today announced the acquisition of PhonePe Internet, a payments start-up started by former senior executives, Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari.

PhonePe is building India’s first Unified Payments Interface (UPI) based product, and was launched in December by Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari, former senior leaders who recently left Flipkart, and Burzin Engineer, also a former Flipkart executive.

UPI, planned to go live in April, will allow users to transact using their identification and mobile phone number or virtual payments address without sharing any other bank details.

PhonePe is Flipkart’s third major acquisition in payments.

At the moment, the current leaders in payments are Paytm, Freecharge followed by smaller firms such as Oxigen Services and One MobiKwik Systems, company added.

“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, said, Binny Bansal, CEO, Flipkart in a statement.”

In contrast to the present payments process, which involves entering numerous account/card details and multi-level interventions, UPI will provide a highly secure hassle-free digital payments experience.

Anyone holding an active bank account can easily perform instant transactions by simply using their mobile phone.