PhonePe pauses IPO process citing geopolitical conflicts and market volatility

PhonePe pauses IPO process citing geopolitical conflicts and market volatility

• PhonePe defers IPO due to global market volatility and conflicts
• IPO would value PhonePe at $15 billion, raising $1.3 billion
• PhonePe holds 45 percent market share in UPI payments

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UPI payments app PhonePe on March 16, said that it has temporarily deferred its public market listing process due to the current geopolitical conflicts and market volatility.

"We sincerely hope for a swift return to peace in all the affected regions. We remain committed to a public listing in India," CEO and founder Sameer Nigam said in a statement.

The Walmart-backed company said that it will resume the listing process once there is some stability in global capital markets.

The war impact

The US-Israel war on Iran has spooked the global markets, and the $1.3-billion IPO valuing the company at $15 billion needed a lot more liquidity than the current market offers, said a source close to the discussions.

The Bengaluru-based fintech firm received market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) approval for its initial public offering (IPO) on January 20.

The offering is expected to value PhonePe at around $15 billion, and the company was looking to raise around Rs 12,000 crore ( $1.35 billion) through a pure OFS or offer for sale, Moneycontrol exclusively reported.

The role of the Middle East investors 

The escalating tensions in West Asia were expected to dampen investor sentiment, particularly toward IPO-bound startups, venture capital investors and investment bankers told Moneycontrol previously.

The Middle East-based funds and Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are among the biggest investors in India's tech IPOs and startup ecosystem. Given the war, these investors and others across the world are growing cautious and are looking to conserve capital, the investors said.

This decision will result in IPOs getting pushed, the investors cited above added.

Moreover, eight of the 15 new-age tech companies that went public through IPOs in 2025 are trading below their issue price, a trend industry experts attributed to market volatility, aggressive IPO pricing.

Second-largest New Economy IPO

The public listing of the Bengaluru-based payments giant could have been the second-largest new economy listing after rival Paytm’s IPO in late 2021. Noida-based Paytm’s IPO valuation was around $20 billion, with the IPO size of around Rs 18,000 crore.

PhonePe has around 45 percent market share in the mobile payments platform, UPI, with its nearest competitor, Google Pay, holding around 35 percent market share. More than 85 percent of the country’s digital payments are processed by the UPI platform.

The continued growth of the platform, along with newer use cases and strong innovation, makes UPI an unrivalled platform for digital payments in the country.

PhonePe processes close to 10 billion transactions worth over Rs 12 lakh crore every month.

The company also has multiple other verticals, from a stock market trading app share.market, lending platform and sale of insurance policies, among others.