Flipkart on Friday announced the acquisition of PhonePe, a Bangalore based mobile payments company. PhonePe which is building India’s first Unified Payments Interface (UPI) based product is co-founded by ex-Flipkart employees Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari.
UPI is a revolutionary new interface which will allow users to transact using their unique identification and mobile phone number or virtual payments address without sharing any other bank details. UPI will provide a secure and convenient digital payments experience which will do away with the present system that involves entering numerous account/card details and multi-level interventions.
Commenting on this acquisition, Binny Bansal, CEO, Flipkart, said, “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.”
Sameer Nigam, Co-founder, PhonePe commented, “PhonePe’s mission is to significantly improve the online and offline digital payments experience for millions of Indian customers. We are really excited to merge with Flipkart and get access to one of the largest consumer bases in the country, which will allow us to realize our vision at a much larger scale”
Flipkart, launched in October 2007, is India’s largest e-commerce marketplace with over 60% market share of mobile commerce. With a registered customer base of 75 million, Flipkart offers more than 30 million products across more than 70 categories.