Quick Take
- PhonePe crosses 50 Mn lifetime registered merchants, covering 98.61% of all Indian pin codes as of April 2026.
- The platform commands a ~48% UPI market share by volume and processes Rs 15 trillion in annual merchant transaction value.
- With SEBI IPO approval secured and merchant lending surging 400x since FY23, the monetisation story has decisively shifted.
PhonePe crosses 50 Mn registered merchants on its platform, the Bengaluru-based fintech announced on April 28, 2026 — a milestone that marks a decade-long journey from a UPI payments app to India’s largest merchant financial services network.
The announcement arrives at a defining moment. PhonePe has secured SEBI approval for its IPO, holds a ~48% share of India’s UPI transaction volume, and is generating meaningful revenue from the merchant relationships it spent years building at near-zero cost. The 50 Mn merchant number is not just a scale metric — it is the foundation of an entirely new revenue architecture.
StartupFeed Insight
The 50 Mn merchant milestone matters less as a headline than as a monetisation unlock. PhonePe’s merchant lending revenue surged from Rs 1.1 Cr in FY23 to Rs 4,507 Cr in FY25 — a 400x jump in two years — powered entirely by transaction data from the merchant base it acquired for free through QR code distribution That data moat is now the most defensible asset PhonePe carries into its IPO. A merchant who has three years of daily UPI settlement history on PhonePe is bankable in ways that no NBFC can replicate from a cold lead.
The DRHP-disclosed figure of Transactions Per Monthly Active Merchant rising from 147 in March 2023 to 379 in September 2025 tells the deeper story: merchants are not just registered, they are deeply embedded. Expect PhonePe to use the IPO proceeds to aggressively scale merchant lending through partner lenders and launch a co-branded credit product for merchants within 12 months of listing.
— StartupFeed Desk
What PhonePe Crosses 50 Mn Merchants Actually Means
The 50 Mn figure is a lifetime registered merchant count — it includes every business that has ever onboarded PhonePe’s payment stack, from a tea vendor in Panipat with a QR sticker to a multi-outlet retail chain using PhonePe’s EDC POS machine. The more instructive data comes from PhonePe’s DRHP filed with SEBI: as of September 30, 2025, the platform had 47.19 Mn registered merchants processing 24.96 billion transactions with a total merchant transaction value of Rs 8.51 trillion in just six months.
Coverage is near-total. PhonePe’s merchant network spans 98.61% of all Indian pin codes — representing 77–80% of India’s total trade and services merchant population. No other payment platform, digital or otherwise, comes close to that geographic reach.
“Reaching 50 million merchants is a significant milestone in our effort to make financial services more accessible to merchants across India. For many of our partners, the journey began with a simple QR code, but that relationship has since matured. Today, digital payments serve as a gateway to a wider range of formal services, including credit.” — Yuvraj Singh Shekhawat, Chief Business Officer, Merchant Business, PhonePe
The engagement numbers inside the registered base are equally significant. Daily Active Merchants as a percentage of Monthly Active Merchants rose to 60.77% by September 2025, up sharply from 44.18% in March 2023. Transactions Per Monthly Active Merchant more than doubled from 147.87 to 379.16 over the same period. These are not vanity metrics — they are indicators of genuine daily commercial dependency on the platform.
Deal Breakdown: PhonePe Merchant Platform at a Glance
| Metric | Detail | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lifetime Registered Merchants | 50 Mn+ | Announced April 28, 2026 |
| Pin Code Coverage | 98.61% of all Indian pin codes | As of September 2025 (DRHP) |
| Monthly Active Merchants | 11.31 Mn | ~54% of all active UPI merchants in India |
| Daily Active Merchant Rate | 60.77% of MAM | Up from 44.18% in March 2023 |
| Merchant TPV (Annual) | Rs 15 trillion | Based on H1 FY26 DRHP data annualised |
| Merchant Lending Disbursals (FY25) | Rs 4,507 Cr | Up from Rs 11 Cr in FY23 — a 400x increase |
| Deployed Physical Devices | 9.19 Mn (SmartSpeakers + EDC terminals) | Subscription revenue generating hardware |
| Merchant Payments Revenue (FY25) | Rs 1,991 Cr | 28% of PhonePe’s total operational revenue |
| Field Force | 25,657 employees + 31,000+ agents | Focused on rural and Tier 2/3 expansion |
| Registered Users (Consumer) | 65 Cr (650 Mn) | Company-disclosed figure, April 2026 |
About PhonePe
PhonePe is a Bengaluru-headquartered digital payments and financial services company founded in December 2015 by Sameer Nigam (CEO), Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer. The PhonePe app, built on UPI, went live in August 2016. It is majority-owned by Walmart following its separation from Flipkart in 2022. PhonePe has 650 Mn+ registered consumers and 50 Mn+ registered merchants, commands approximately 48% of India’s UPI transaction volume, and operates across payments, insurance, equity broking (Share.Market), hyperlocal commerce (Pincode), and the Indus Appstore. It posted a profit of Rs 235 Cr in FY25 on revenue of Rs 5,500 Cr (+63% YoY). SEBI has approved its IPO filing.
How does PhonePe compare to Google Pay and Paytm on UPI?
| Platform | UPI Market Share (Volume) | Registered Users | Key Merchant Differentiator |
|---|---|---|---|
| PhonePe | ~48% | 650 Mn+ | 50 Mn merchants, 9.19 Mn devices, embedded lending |
| Google Pay | ~36% | Not disclosed | Consumer-led, strong P2P; weaker merchant stack |
| Paytm | ~14% | ~100 Mn active | Sound box pioneer; regulatory headwinds post-2024 |
The 30% UPI market cap rule — which would have required PhonePe to reduce its share — has been deferred by NPCI to December 2026, giving the company at least another eight months to operate at its current dominance level without forced constraint.
PhonePe’s advantage over Google Pay is structural: Google Pay has strong consumer P2P but a materially weaker merchant services stack. PhonePe’s 9.19 Mn deployed physical devices — SmartSpeakers providing audio payment confirmations in multiple languages including celebrity voices, and EDC terminals supporting UPI, cards, and tap-to-pay — create a subscription revenue stream that neither Google Pay nor Paytm can easily replicate at scale.
What’s Next
The IPO is the most immediate catalyst to watch. SEBI has approved the filing, making PhonePe one of the most anticipated public market events in Indian fintech history. The listing will crystallise a valuation for a company that last raised at a $12 Bn pre-money valuation in 2023 — and has since posted its first full-year profit and more than doubled merchant transaction velocity. Watch for the IPO price band announcement, which will signal how Walmart and existing investors are thinking about PhonePe’s worth after the merchant monetisation pivot. Will PhonePe’s merchant credit book — growing at 400x over two years — command a fintech multiple or a payments multiple at listing?
Frequently Asked Questions
How many merchants does PhonePe have in 2026?
PhonePe crosses 50 Mn registered merchants as of April 28, 2026, covering 98.61% of all Indian pin codes. Of these, 11.31 Mn are monthly active merchants — roughly 54% of all active UPI merchants in India. Daily Active Merchants represent 60.77% of the monthly active base, up from 44.18% in March 2023, indicating deep daily commercial dependency on the platform rather than passive registration.
What is PhonePe’s UPI market share in 2026?
PhonePe holds approximately 48% of India’s UPI transaction volume by value, making it the dominant player in the ecosystem by a wide margin. Google Pay follows with roughly 36% share, and Paytm accounts for around 14%. The 30% UPI market cap rule — which could have forced PhonePe to reduce its share — has been deferred by NPCI to December 2026, allowing the current market structure to hold in the near term
When is PhonePe’s IPO and what is its valuation?
PhonePe has received SEBI approval for its IPO as of early 2026. The company last raised primary capital at a pre-money valuation of $12 Bn in 2023 from General Atlantic and Walmart. In FY25, PhonePe posted a profit of Rs 235 Cr on revenue of Rs 5,500 Cr, a 63% year-on-year increase. The IPO price band has not yet been announced. PhonePe is backed by Walmart, which holds a majority stake following the company’s separation from Flipkart in 2022.
Written by Harshvardhan jain. Published: April 28, 2026. Updated: April 28, 2026. Have a tip? Write to us at editorial@startupfeed.in.
