PhonePe Founder and CEO Sameer Nigam said the fintech company hopes to revive its initial public offering (IPO) plans once global markets stabilise, even as it prepares to expand beyond India with a full-stack payments business in the UAE.
Speaking at the 17th edition of YourStory's TechSparks in Bengaluru on Tuesday, Nigam said PhonePe had completed much of the groundwork for its public listing before geopolitical tensions and market volatility forced it to pause the process earlier this year.
"I think hopefully not too far away," Nigam said when asked about the IPO by Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory and The Bharat Project. "We got our board approvals. We were almost over the line. We'd done our roadshows," he said, recalling how escalating conflicts disrupted the company's plans.
"The first moment of stability, we would like to get back out there," he added, without committing to a listing date.
PhonePe had announced a pause in its IPO plans in March 2026, citing geopolitical uncertainty and volatile market conditions. Nigam declined to discuss the company's potential valuation, saying its draft prospectus reflected the past rather than the future.
Govern like a bank, innovate like big tech
Nigam said payments carry a responsibility other consumer tech does not. "Yes, it's fintech. Yes, it's a consumer tech business. But really, it's a business of trust," he said. PhonePe operates under the oversight of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) through its various businesses. Nigam said the company undergoes around 130 to 140 external audits annually, roughly once every two working days. "You can't wing it. It has to become a way of life," he said.
His guiding principle is to balance the pace of technology innovation with the governance standards expected of a large financial institution: "Govern yourself like an HDFC or an SBI, build like a Google or an Amazon. Also, in this sector, never switch the two. You'll be dead."
He credited the company's compliance culture to a leadership team that has largely stayed together for a decade and mandatory orientation for every hire, including its roughly 50,000-strong sales network across the country. The message, he said, never changes: "You can't do jugaad at this scale, and ethics are non-negotiable."
UPI for feature phones
PhonePe has taken UPI to feature phones through encrypted SMS-based payments, reviving a technology approach that had initially struggled to gain traction about five years ago, when the industry expected feature phones to disappear. The company subsequently renewed its efforts as smartphone affordability became a growing concern. PhonePe publicly announced its UPI 123Pay offering in August 2026, following its acquisition of Gupshup’s GSPay technology stack in June 2025.
Nigam said job and income losses after COVID, and rising component costs partly linked to demand for AI infrastructure, have made entry-level smartphones increasingly unaffordable for many Indians. "Sales numbers are in decline in India for the first time in 15 years," he said.
The offering, which PhonePe is working to make available across devices from HMD, Nokia, Itel and Lava, is adding around 15,000 to 20,000 users a day, according to Nigam. It has reached about three lakh transactions a month, up from one lakh the month before. "It is growing like a hockey stick on a small base," Nigam said. Users can send money, check balances after direct benefit transfers and receive payments through a UPI QR code. The company is also expanding the range of services, including bill payments and mobile recharges, available on feature phones.
His rationale was simple: "If we are a payments company, our job is to leave no one behind." He added that AI could tackle another barrier, language: "It's not just Bhashini, but conversation will change the game."
Taking PhonePe's payments business overseas
PhonePe has so far enabled Indian travellers to make UPI payments at participating merchants abroad. That falls short in markets such as the UAE and Singapore, where merchants may accept UPI but do not always prominently advertise it, prompting Indian travellers to continue using cards. PhonePe's international CEO, Ritesh Pai, therefore pushed for a broader strategy in the UAE that includes the app, merchant acquiring and remittances.
In September 2026, PhonePe received in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for two licences covering retail payment services and card schemes, and stored value facilities. Commercial operations remain subject to final regulatory approval. Singapore is the other market the company has applied in, Nigam said.
Nigam hopes others follow. "I would be disappointed if others didn't. We have all the resources. We have all the VCs. We have all the talent. We have all the agency. Now we should go abroad," he said.
Purpose over pay
On AI anxiety, Nigam was sceptical of predictions that technology would fundamentally replace human relationships: "We are not going to get an AI agent as a lifetime buddy and sequester ourselves from mankind." He acknowledged that technological change was disrupting careers and employment, but argued that companies must offer employees a sense of belonging and purpose rather than purely transactional relationships.
To founders, he said money matters less than purpose. "Once you have roots, everything else is a waste," said Nigam, who still lives in the house he moved into 14 years ago. What excites him, he said, is seeing PhonePe QR codes in Leh-Ladakh, Tawang and the Andamans, and the prospect of expanding access to loans from three million people to 30 million. For Nigam, expanding financial access and building sustainable jobs are more meaningful measures of entrepreneurial success than personal wealth.
"That is fun."