Mumbai, March 6, 2026, 05:08 IST
PhonePe, Walmart Inc’s payments business in India, is eyeing a $9 billion to $10.5 billion IPO valuation, according to people familiar with the situation. This would pave the way for Walmart to sell a portion of its stake, and allow Microsoft and Tiger Global to exit.
The proposed range still puts this among the top fintech IPOs in India, but it comes in below PhonePe’s $12 billion private valuation from 2023. Paytm, once the 2021 bellwether, is currently trading well under its IPO price.
Walmart finds itself in a tricky but potentially advantageous spot: selling off a big-name tech asset just as other major retailers remain preoccupied with squeezed margins and unpredictable policy shifts. “The core issue isn’t the elevated tariff rates, it’s the policy whiplash,” eMarketer analyst Zak Stambor said. Target CEO Michael Fiddelke added, “price is the very last lever we want to pull.” Reuters
PhonePe’s upcoming IPO could pull in between $900 million and $1.05 billion, according to expectations, with around 50.7 million existing shares set to hit the market. No new shares—so none of the proceeds will go to the company itself; it’s all coming from current holders cashing out. The company submitted its IPO filing back in September and is aiming for an April debut, but has cautioned that the timeline might slip, citing uncertainty linked to the Middle East conflict.
Walmart is sitting on roughly 72% of PhonePe, according to updated draft papers, and is looking to offload close to 46 million shares. Microsoft and Tiger Global? Both are heading for the exits, unloading their entire stakes. Kotak Mahindra Capital, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Jefferies are all named as book-running lead managers, the filings say.
PhonePe counts over 650 million registered users, handling close to 10 billion out of the 21.7 billion UPI transactions logged in January, according to regulatory data. India’s UPI, the instant payments network, operates under a fee ban—basic payments stay low-margin as a result.
The company is still posting losses. For the six months through Sept. 30, PhonePe reported a loss of 14.44 billion rupees ($158 million), while revenue picked up roughly 22% to reach 39.18 billion rupees, its IPO filing shows.
The price isn’t set in stone, and there’s not much time. PhonePe is targeting an April finish for its IPO, though it’s warned that volatile markets and the Middle East conflict could push things back or leave shareholders settling for a smaller valuation.
