PhonePe, a leading digital payments platform, made significant strides in FY24, fueled by a $1 billion funding injection from investors like General Atlantic, Walmart, and Tiger Global in 2023. This infusion of capital, along with strong cost optimization, enabled PhonePe to exceed Rs 5,000 crore in revenue while also significantly narrowing its losses.
According to its annual report for FY24, PhonePe’s operational revenue saw a sharp 73.8% jump, hitting Rs 5,064 crore for the fiscal year ending March 2024. Payment services continued to be the platform’s key revenue driver, supplemented by Rs 661 crore in interest income from deposits and investments, a result of a $195 million funding round. Total revenue for the company climbed to Rs 5,725 crore, compared to Rs 3,085 crore the previous year.
On the expenses side, employee benefits accounted for 46.45% of total costs, reaching Rs 3,603 crore in FY24, an increase of 16.4% from the prior fiscal year. Notably, Rs 1,876 crore of this was attributed to ESOP expenses, with only Rs 288 crore settled in cash, while the remainder represented non-cash expenditures.
PhonePe’s costs also rose in other key areas. Payment processing charges surged 74.8% to Rs 1,166 crore, while overall operational expenses—covering advertising, IT, licenses, legal fees, and more—grew by 31.3% to Rs 7,756 crore.
Despite these rising expenses, PhonePe successfully trimmed its net losses by 28.6%, reducing them to Rs 1,996 crore from Rs 2,795 crore in FY23. This was largely due to the company’s growth, with scale expanding by 74%. The firm’s return on capital employed (ROCE) and EBITDA margin were recorded at -18.25% and -14.74%, respectively. In terms of unit economics, PhonePe spent Rs 1.53 for every rupee earned in FY24.
With a valuation of $12 billion, PhonePe is India’s highest-valued privately-owned fintech and leads the UPI-based payments market, holding close to 50% share in both transaction volume and value.
In 2022, PhonePe shifted its corporate headquarters from Singapore to India, a move that saw it pay over Rs 8,000 crore in taxes. Similarly, Groww recently announced a Rs 1,340 crore tax payment as part of its own relocation from the US to India.