PhonePe crosses Rs 5,000 Cr revenue in FY24; losses dwindle 28.6%

Digital payments platform PhonePe secured nearly $1 billion in funding from General Atlantic, Walmart, Tiger Global, and other investors in 2023. This significant investment, coupled with effective cost management, helped PhonePe surpass Rs 5,000 crore in revenue while reducing its losses during FY24.

PhonePe’s revenue from operations surged by 73.8%, reaching Rs 5,064 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2024, according to the company’s consolidated annual report published on its website.

Income from payment services remained the primary revenue source for PhonePe, while a $195 million funding round contributed to an additional interest income of Rs 661 crore, mainly from deposits and investments. This led to PhonePe's total revenue rising to Rs 5,725 crore in FY24, compared to Rs 3,085 crore in FY23.

For tech-enabled firm PhonePe, employee benefits constituted 46.45% of total expenses, increasing by 16.4% to Rs 3,603 crore in FY24 from Rs 3,096 crore in FY23. This figure includes Rs 1,876 crore in ESOP expenses, of which only Rs 288 crore were settled in cash, with the remainder being non-cash expenditure.

In line with its growth, payment processing charges surged 74.8% to Rs 1,166 crore in FY24. Moreover, expenses related to advertising, information technology, licenses, legal, and other overheads pushed overall costs up by 31.3% to Rs 7,756 crore in FY24.

PhonePe managed to reduce its net losses by 28.6%, bringing them down to Rs 1,996 crore in FY24 from Rs 2,795 crore in FY23, aided by controlled costs and a 74% growth in scale. The company’s ROCE and EBITDA margin stood at -18.25% and -14.74%, respectively. On a unit basis, PhonePe spent Rs 1.53 to earn a rupee in FY24.

With a valuation of $12 billion, PhonePe is the most highly valued privately-owned fintech firm in India and the leading UPI-based app, commanding nearly 50% of the market in both transaction volume and value.

The Walmart-controlled company shifted its domicile from Singapore to India, paying over Rs 8,000 crore in taxes for the reverse flip in 2022. Similarly, on Monday, Groww disclosed that it paid Rs 1,340 crore for its own domicile shift from the US to India.