WMT Walmart Inc

   Ben Otto 
 

Walmart Inc.'s Indian e-commerce marketplace Flipkart is partially spinning off its digital-payments platform in a deal to raise $700 million in fresh capital for the unit.

Flipkart said Thursday that PhonePe will raise $700 million in primary capital from existing Flipkart investors led by Walmart. Bengaluru-based Flipkart will remain majority shareholder of PhonePe.

The latest fundraising round will give PhonePe, one of the largest digital-payments platform in India, a post-money valuation of $5.5 billion, Flipkart said.

"This partial spinoff gives PhonePe access to dedicated long-term capital to pursue our vision of providing financial inclusion to a billion Indians," said Sameer Nigam, PhonePe's founder and chief executive.

PhonePe, which competes with Google Pay and Paytm in India, has more than 100 million monthly active users who generated nearly a billion digital payment transactions in October, according to Flipkart.

Walmart in 2018 acquired a controlling stake in Flipkart for $16 billion--the U.S. giant's largest-ever acquisition.

Write to Ben Otto at ben.otto@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 03, 2020 03:54 ET (08:54 GMT)

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