IPO-Bound PhonePe Crosses 50 Million Registered Merchants

By Ventura Research Team 3 min Read Apr 29, 2026

PhonePe crosses 50 million merchants in India ahead of IPO launch

Summary:
When PhonePe started out in 2016, its pitch to small shop owners was simple: stick a QR code on your counter and start accepting digital payments. No complicated setup, no expensive hardware, no bank visits. For millions of kirana store owners, street vendors, and roadside businesses across India, that was enough of a reason to try it.

Nearly a decade later, the numbers tell their own story. On 28 April 2026, PhonePe announced that it had crossed 50 million lifetime registered merchants on its platform. The merchant base now covers over 98% of India's postal codes, meaning the company's reach extends well beyond cities into small towns and rural pockets that cash-based businesses once dominated.

From QR Codes to a Broader Merchant Business

The QR code was only the beginning. Over the years, PhonePe expanded what it offers merchants: point-of-sale devices, smart speakers for payment confirmations, access to loans, and a business app that lets merchants manage payments and sign up for additional services. The idea was to use the initial payment relationship as a starting point for pulling smaller businesses into the formal financial system.

"Reaching 50 million merchants is a significant milestone in our effort to make financial services more accessible to merchants across India. For many of our partners, the journey began with a simple QR code, but that relationship has since matured. Today, digital payments serve as a gateway to a wider range of formal services, including credit," said Yuvraj Singh Shekhawat, Chief Business Officer for the merchant business at PhonePe.

The company says the expansion was supported by an on-the-ground sales network and local-language support, which helped smaller businesses, particularly kirana stores transitioning away from purely cash-based transactions, feel comfortable adopting the technology.

A Business Getting Ready to Go Public

The merchant milestone comes at a meaningful moment for PhonePe. The company has filed an updated draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India and is preparing for an initial public offering, subject to approvals and market conditions.

The proposed IPO is entirely an offer for sale. This means the company will not issue new shares and will not receive any proceeds from the listing. Instead, existing shareholders

including Walmart, Tiger Global, and Microsoft Global Finance will collectively offload up to 5.07 crore equity shares.

PhonePe was targeting a valuation of $15 billion when it filed its IPO papers, though it later lowered expectations to $9-$10.5 billion during discussions with domestic mutual fund houses, citing market volatility and the ongoing West Asia conflict. The IPO timing has shifted from earlier expectations, and no formal listing date has been confirmed.

Where PhonePe Stands in the Market

PhonePe commands over 45% market share in UPI transactions and processed 9.8 billion transactions in December 2025. It competes primarily with Google Pay and Paytm in India's digital payments market. All three are working to grow beyond payments into lending, insurance, and wealth products areas that tend to generate better margins than pure transaction processing.

On financials, revenue surged by approximately 40% year-on-year to ₹7,115 crore for the fiscal year ended March 2025. Net losses narrowed, and on an adjusted basis excluding ESOP costs, PhonePe reported a profit of ₹630 crore.

One regulatory factor worth keeping in mind: the National Payments Corporation of India has proposed capping UPI market share at 30% for any single operator. While the proposal has been extended to December 2026, it is certain to affect PhonePe, which held a 45.5% share in the UPI market. How that plays out will be one of the more closely watched regulatory developments for the company post-listing.

What the 50 Million Number Actually Means

Fifty million merchants is a large number, but it is worth putting in context. As of March 2025, PhonePe's registered merchants covered 77 to 80% of India's estimated 56 to 58 million trade and services merchant base. The jump to 98% postal code coverage in the year since suggests the company has been pushing hard into the last mile the smaller markets and harder-to-reach towns where digital payment adoption has historically been slower.

For India's broader digital economy, this kind of merchant-side penetration matters. Consumer-side adoption of UPI has been strong for years, but the utility of digital payments only deepens when the businesses people shop at can receive them reliably. The expansion into rural postal codes closes that gap, at least on paper.

Whether PhonePe can convert that scale into sustainable, profitable growth across its broader financial services ambitions is the question that investors will be watching closely — both before and after whatever listing eventually materialises.