New Delhi is buzzing with fintech news as PhonePe Limited gears up for its much-anticipated IPO. The company’s updated Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) filed with SEBI paints a picture of a colossal merchant ecosystem that’s no longer just a payment app but a billion-rupee revenue machine.
Forget the notion of PhonePe as a ‘free’ service. Its merchant infrastructure powers 47 million businesses across India, supported by millions of physical payment devices. As of September 30, 2025, registered merchants hit 47.19 million, covering 98.61% of India’s pincodes. This network represents 77-80% of the nation’s total trade and services merchants as of March 31, 2025.
Monthly active merchants stood at 11.31 million in March 2025, capturing 54% of all active UPI merchants in the country. Daily active merchant engagement surged from 44.18% in March 2023 to 60.77% by September 2025, showcasing sticky user adoption.
The physical footprint is a goldmine. With 9.19 million devices deployed, these aren’t mere payment terminals—they double as smart speakers delivering business updates and alerts. A massive team of 25,657 members and over 31,000 agents maintains this network, with a sharp focus on rural expansion.
Merchant lending emerges as the fastest-growing segment. Leveraging transaction data from its 47 million merchants, PhonePe facilitates unsecured loans through partner lenders. Loan disbursals skyrocketed from 0.11 billion rupees in FY2023 to 45.07 billion in FY2025. In just the first half of FY2026, loan income reached 2,880.87 million rupees—nearly 88% of the prior full year’s haul.
Merchant payments alone generated 19,910.36 million rupees in FY2025, accounting for 28% of total operating revenue. With total payment value (TPV) approaching 15 trillion rupees annually, PhonePe has masterfully transformed its payment network into a high-value financial services platform. Investors eyeing the IPO will find this diversified monetization strategy hard to ignore.