The pandemic has contributed to the exponential growth of the fintech sector, and that is evident in the numbers presented by PhonePe. The digital payments and financial services firm recorded a rise of 85% in revenue from operations and a drop of 44% in losses for the financial year 2021 on a standalone basis, regulatory filings show.
PhonePe’s revenue increased from ₹372 crores in FY20 to ₹690 crores in FY21, while its operational losses, excluding the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), came at around ₹884 crores in FY21, a decrease from ₹1,570 crores in FY20. Higher revenue (from an unprecedented increase in digital transactions) and fall in operating costs (from ₹1016 crores in FY20 to ₹535 crores in FY21, a fall of around 47%) have led to the decrease in losses.
The six-year-old startup is moving beyond the payments vertical and has made its way into financial services. Founded by former Flipkart executives Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer, it has over 300 million registered users and offers insurance, gold purchasing, and mutual fund services. Its gross margins rose from 60% to 84% year-over-year, while its ESOP came at an all-time high of ₹843 crores in FY21 from ₹206 crores in FY20. Additionally, its net loss came to ₹1,727 crores for the period.
The startup has evolved into one of the leaders in the UPI (United Payments Interface) and Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) and has wide coverage across the country. In fact, it makes up for 45% of UPI monthly volume and 47% of the monthly value of transactions. The firm is the first UPI startup to cross $1 billion in transactions in a month. Earlier this year, it had also received an Insurance Broking License from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).
It competes with names such as Amazon Pay, Paytm, and Google Pay, and has an annualized total payment volume of over $473 billion.
