Indian digital payment company PhonePe has raked in fresh funding of $28m from its parent organisation Flipkart.
The latest fund infusion takes Flipkart’s total investment in PhonePe to $928m.
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Walmart-owned e-commerce major Flipkart has made the investment in PhonePe’s Singapore-based parent entity PhonePe Pte Ltd.
This is said to be the first round of funding that the digital payment company has raised this financial year.
Livemint, citing two people familiar with the development, reported that PhonePe is looking to conduct a larger round of fund-raising in the next few months. It could be in the range of more than $100m.
The funding has come at a time when PhonePe bracing up to compete against WhatsApp Pay, which is set to roll out payment services in India with the help of telecom giant Reliance Jio.
Sameer Nigam, founder and CEO of PhonePe, recently commented the payment firm is looking to turn profitable by 2022 and file for an IPO a year later.
WhatsApp secured key regulatory approval to launch its payment services in India in phases in February this year.
Acquired by Facebook for $21bn in 2014, WhatsApp has more than 400 million users in India.
In February this year, PhonePe allocated INR8bn ($112.13m) for promotion as well as to expand its reach in India.
It also partnered prominent Indian film stars Aamir Khan and Alia Bhatt as its brand ambassadors.
The payment app, which competes with Paytm, Google Pay and other similar digital payment apps in India, aims to build a 200 million customer base in the country.
