PhonePe Leans on Merchant Payments as It Eyes IPO Amid Zero-MDR Squeeze
PhonePe drew ₹3,918.5 Cr H1 FY26 operating revenue, with 86% from payments. It has deployed 92 lakh merchant devices to kiranas and retailers while facilitating ₹14,270 Cr in loans and 1.85 Cr insurance policies, but zero-MDR keeps core UPI profitability under pressure ahead of listing.
Analysis of PhonePe's monetisation via UPI, merchant services (QR/soundboxes/PoS to kiranas and retailers), lending, insurance, and wealthtech ahead of its IPO, highlighting merchant-payment competition and profitability challenges under zero-MDR.
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