BackPhonePe shifts domicile from Singapore to India
The move comes ahead of the company’s speculated initial public offering
PremiumWalmart-owned PhonePe, on Monday announced that it has completed the process of moving its domicile from Singapore to India. The move comes ahead of the company’s speculated initial public offering (IPO).
The digital payments and financial services provider completed the process in three steps. The company moved all businesses and subsidiaries of PhonePe Singapore, its insurance and wealth broking businesses, to PhonePe Pvt Ltd - India directly, over the past year.
Secondly, the company’s board recently approved the creation of a new ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) along with the migration of more than 3000 PhonePe Group employees’ existing ESOPs by issuing new ESOPs under PhonePe India’s new plan.
In November last year, the company announced a buyback plan for employee stock options that were issued last December 2020. The ESOP buyback was worth ₹135 crore.
Lastly, under the newly liberalised automatic ODI rules, PhonePe has also moved the ownership of recently acquired IndusOS Appstore (OSLabs Pte Ltd) from Singapore to India, the company said in a release.
PhonePe said that following all these actions, all PhonePe Group businesses and entities are now wholly owned by and consolidated under PhonePe Pvt Ltd - India.
Founded in 2015, PhonePe is one of the leading digital payment apps in India. The company provides several financial services on its platform including investments and insurance.
PhonePe forayed into financial services in 2017 with the launch of gold investments, providing its millions of users with an option to buy 24-karat gold. The company also recently also launched silver on its platform.
The platform offers gold and silver investments, mutual funds and Insurance products like tax-saving funds, liquid funds, international travel insurance, and life insurance, among others.
The company claims that it has over 400 million registered users and has onboarded 32 million offline merchants across Tier 2, 3, 4 and beyond cities and towns.
In the digital payments space, PhonePe pits against Paytm, GooglePay, MobiKwik, and Freecharge as well as new entrant CRED.
In March, PhonePe acquired Explorium Innovative Technologies Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates GigIndia, a network for freelance micro-entrepreneurs for an undisclosed amount. As part of the acquisition, GigIndia integrated with the digital payments platform.
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