10 Years of PhonePe: Powering Progress, Opportunity & Access for Every Indian

In a world ruled by cash transactions, endless hunts for change, and the familiar swipe of a credit card, it took just one ‘ping’ to change the way India pays. It wasn’t just a payment going  through, it was the moment a dream took flight and India’s digital payment story truly began.

If you think back to 2015, life looked very different. Most of us were still carrying cash (and backup cash!) card machines failed more often than we would like to admit, and paying for autos or buses meant scrambling for exact change. UPI existed as a technical acronym, but it wasn’t something people actively used. 

Then came demonetisation, followed by the pandemic – times we all remember being incredibly tough. Yet, amid the disruption, a meaningful shift took place. As social distancing became the norm and the country adapted to life without physical cash, India moved decisively towards digital payments, ushering in a new era of cashless transactions.

One name that rode on the back of this digital payments revolution wave was PhonePe!

Over the past decade, PhonePe has grown from an idea to a verb, from an app to an everyday companion trusted by over  610 million registered users across India  – quietly becoming a household name India relies on and swears by! 

But more than numbers, this is a story about trust – the trust you placed in us when digital payments were still new. The trust of the merchant who put our QR code outside their shop. The trust of millions who let us be part of their daily lives. 

Reflecting on this journey, Sameer Nigam, Founder & CEO said “The most exciting part of our ten-year journey is that, despite how far we have come, the summit is still not in sight. We don’t yet know how high or how wide it will be, and that’s what makes it exciting. With thousands of passionate, driven people striving every day to be the best in their craft, this journey remains as meaningful and energising as ever.”

Let’s glimpse back into a time when UPI was just getting started

August 2016 feels like a different lifetime now, back when cash was king, wallets were heavy, and UPI was a term only a few people in tech circles knew about. It was then PhonePe placed its bets on a brand-new payment rail, believing that one day, money could move as swiftly as a text message!

Just four months later, demonetisation happened and from being a “good to have”, digital payments became an absolute necessity almost overnight.

In the middle of this change, PhonePe wasn’t just an app people paid through, it became a trusted household name, a lifeline for both merchants and everyday users. For millions of people trying to adapt to digital payments, the familiar sound of a payment going through offered reassurance that life could still go on.

By January 2017, just 5 months after launch, PhonePe became the first UPI app to cross 10 million downloads and the largest driver of UPI transactions in the country. What started as an early bet on exciting but new technology, was quickly turning into a nationwide movement. More than just processing transactions, we were patiently teaching India how to trust digital money, one transaction, one shopkeeper, one household at a time.

Payments was just the beginning

Even in those early days, it was clear that payments were only the beginning. India didn’t just need a way to pay, it needed financial services to grow. In December 2017, PhonePe launched digital Gold, allowing people to invest with as little as Re. 1. For the first time, wealth creation felt approachable and easy to do. 

A year later, in October 2018, PhonePe Business gave merchants clarity and control over their payments, helping them navigate a rapidly digitising economy with confidence. One app where they can view all about their business with an easy to navigate dashboard.

March 2019 marked yet another important milestone with the launch of Mutual Funds, opening doors for millions of Indians who thought investing was for the wealthy or the financially savvy. And then September 2019 brought with itself a defining moment for the digital payments ecosystem – India’s first interoperable QR code. One QR. All apps. Truly universal payments.

These weren’t just product launches. They were quiet revolutions that were designed to simplify, include, and empower. 

By the end of 2019, PhonePe had grown from a payments app into a trusted financial platform, woven into the everyday lives of millions of Indians. The foundation years were about belief – belief in technology, belief in inclusion, and belief that India was ready for a digital future. Everything that followed was built on this trust.

When India went digital, we grew with it

2020 began with optimism. Like previous years, the plan was to build more, and bring in more people into the digital payments ecosystem. In January 2020, PhonePe forayed into the Insurance sector across health, life, travel and motor, further strengthening financial inclusion in India, making protection feel less like a privilege and more like a basic right.

Additionally, that month, PhonePe’s investment journey became complete with the addition of Liquid Funds, giving Indians access to the full spectrum of Mutual Funds – Debt, Equity, Hybrid, Tax Savings and more! Financial planning had never been this accessible – it was no longer something you postponed for ‘’some day’’, it was something you could begin today.

And then March arrived. The world changed almost overnight. COVID-19 didn’t just disrupt routines, it redefined priorities for us. Stepping outside carried risk, cash felt unsafe, and digital payments became an absolute necessity. Groceries, medicines, electricity bills, money being sent home – everything flowed through screens as India locked down and logged in.

Behind the scenes, PhonePe scaled in real time! Servers stretched, systems adapted, and teams worked relentlessly, knowing that every transaction was not just a number – it was someone getting their medicines, essentials, someone staying connected in isolation. What we had built steadily over years was now being relied upon, at a scale no one could have predicted.

Growth backed by trust

That trust only deepened as the months went by. By June 2021, PhonePe reached 300 million registered users. But the real story was not about the pace of growth – it was the shift in people’s behaviour. Elderly users learning to pay bills because stepping out wasn’t safe, small merchants handling hundreds of transactions a day, having crossed over to digital completely. Families managing payments, investments, savings, insurance and more on one single platform! All because trust had compounded during the toughest of times.

These years weren’t just about scale and milestones. They were about resilience. About proving that trust, once earned over time, becomes the currency that scales in moments of crisis. The pandemic could not have been predicted, but India could take that leap of faith overnight because of the foundation built by PhonePe.

From payments app to financial platform

By 2022, we weren’t just growing, we were maturing. The difference is that growth is about scale while maturity is about responsibility. It’s the shift from asking “how big can we get?” to “how well can we serve?”

January 2022 marked 350 million registered users & by April we crossed a milestone that made us stop and take a breath – 100 million transactions in a single day! Scale like this is humbling, and it comes with questions you can’t ignore.

How do you grow without leaving anyone behind? How do you expand infrastructure without leaving an environmental footprint? How do you ensure a kirana store in a small town has access to the same tools as a large retail chain in a metro?

The answers didn’t come in grand revelations, rather they came in thoughtful choices. In April 2022 we launched the SmartSpeaker – simple, voice-enabled payment alerts that freed merchants from constantly checking their phones between customers. In October we took another step  that reflected how we thought about the future – by launching our first Green Data Center in partnership with Dell Technologies and NTT. That same month, we also did something that felt deeply personal as well as symbolic. PhonePe moved its domicile from Singapore to India – not just as a legal formality – but as a statement of intent. We were built in India. We scaled in India. And now, officially, we belonged to India!

If 2022 was about maturity, 2023 was about transformation. This was the year PhonePe stopped being just a payments platform and became part of India’s financial infrastructure. In February, we became India’s first FinTech platform to enable cross-border UPI payments – allowing an Indian app to work beyond Indian borders!

The leap forward

The ambition didn’t stop with payments. In May, we launched UPI Lite, making small value transactions faster & frictionless. June saw two powerful shifts happen in parallel. Merchant Lending opened doors to credit for small businesses – without paperwork, long waits, and the anxiety of traditional loans. At the same time, our Payment Gateway business helped merchants accept payments seamlessly across channels, offline and online alike.

Then came August 2023, when we took a bold step forward with the launch of Share.Market – our stock broking platform. Because if we could simplify payments for millions, why shouldn’t investing feel just as approachable? By November 2023, we crossed 500 million registered users. Half a billion people! These were more than milestones, they were markers of evolution, proof that we had moved from solving how Indians pay to enabling how Indians manage every part of their financial lives!

Building the future of finance

The last two years have all been about adding meaning to every transaction. About showing up in more moments of everyday life, and doing it with care.

On that note, in February 2024, we launched Indus Appstore – an alternative app marketplace built for India, with India at its core. 

In May 2024, we took a significant step forward with the launch of our Secured Lending platform alongside marquee partners. By August, Credit Line on UPI made access to credit feel as effortless as making a payment. And in October, our partnership with ICICI Bank brought instant credit on UPI, where borrowing met convenience, and financial support arrived exactly when it was needed.

That same October, we published our first Annual Report – because transparency has always been part of who we are. A belief that trust grows when you’re open about where you stand, where you’re headed, and how you get there.

By March 2025, we crossed 600 million registered users. A number we never could have imagined back in 2016, when we processed our very first transaction and quietly hoped that India might one day believe in digital payments.

But the building didn’t stop there. In April, we launched UPI Circle, enabling shared payment access within families—because finance is rarely individual, it’s shared. In May, we unveiled our Made in India SmartSpeaker, designed, developed, and manufactured right here—proof that innovation can be local, thoughtful, and proudly homegrown!

In June, we launched co-branded credit cards with HDFC and SBI , bringing the familiar, trusted PhonePe experience into credit that rewards you.

But here’s what the last decade really taught us: milestones are just markers. They tell you how far you have come, but not why you started or where you are going. 

From a payments app to insurance, investments, lending, broking, and beyond. From 10 million users to 600 million Indians who trust us every day. There is a story behind every number – a merchant’s first digital sale, a student’s first investment, a family’s first insurance policy, a village’s first access to formal credit.

Reminiscing about the last decade, Rahul Chari, Founder & CTO said “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built at PhonePe. The goodwill and support from the industry and the wider ecosystem have been humbling. If there’s one lasting lesson from this journey, it’s this – build something people truly believe in, because passion is what turns an idea into impact.”

We didn’t just build a FinTech platform. We became part of India’s financial fabric, woven into morning chai payments, afternoon grocery runs, evening bill settlements, and weekend investment decisions.

Ten years ago, we wondered if India was ready for digital payments. Today, we don’t wonder, we know. As we look ahead, the next decade isn’t about how big we can get, but how deeply we can serve.

To every user who took a chance on us. Every merchant who put up our QR code. Every partner who believed in our vision. And every team member who poured their heart into building this journey, this decade belongs to all of us!

Here’s to the next ten years of building India’s financial future. Together.