Tap, pay, and go: PhonePe and Mastercard collaborate to power contactless payments through smartphones for millions of Indians

India, 29 September 2025: As contactless payments through smartphones gain popularity among consumers, PhonePe and Mastercard have collaborated to launch an exclusive feature for Mastercard cardholders in India. The new feature enables Mastercard cardholders to make in-store payments by simply tapping their NFC-enabled smartphones at payment terminals using the PhonePe app.

The collaboration is designed to offer secure and frictionless Tap & Pay experiences at physical retail outlets, while also supporting tokenized e-commerce transactions—all through NFC-capable Androidsmartphones. Cardholders can simply save their Mastercard credit, debit, and prepaid cards issued in India on their smartphones and enjoy all the benefits of card-based payments.

By combining Mastercard’s global expertise in tokenization with PhonePe’s vast base of 618 million registered users, this launch expands access to digital payments both within India and internationally. It reinforces the shared commitment of both companies to strengthening the country’s rapidly growing digital economy.

Mastercard cardholders can now benefit from a suite of powerful features, including:

• Secure Tap & Pay in-store payments: Make contactless payments at NFC-enabled terminals across India and abroad using PhonePe app on Android smartphones, with device-specific tokenization for enhanced fraud protection.
• Safer online shopping: Shop securely with Mastercard cards via the PhonePe app, with each transaction tokenized and tied to your device, making stolen credentials useless elsewhere.
• Frictionless & reassuring experience: Save your card just once to enjoy a fast, secure checkout every time, backed by Mastercard’s global expertise in tokenization and PhonePe’s intuitive user experience.

Emphasizing the importance of continuous innovation, Deep Agrawal, Head of Payments at PhonePe, said, “We’re delighted to collaborate with Mastercard to bring device-based tokenization to millions of PhonePe users. With an increased penetration of NFC enabled smartphones coupled with growing consumer preference towards usage of Tap & Pay using their cards, this functionality marries the two seamlessly. This elevates both convenience and security for users, enabling   contactless payments at physical stores and safer online transactions—all within the familiar PhonePe app. We view this association as yet another key step toward delivering a world-class payment experience to PhonePe users across India and when travelling abroad.”

Underlining the significance of this collaboration, Ravi Datla, Senior Vice President, Products & Solutions, South Asia, Mastercard, said, “Mastercard has always believed in scaling innovation. This collaboration with PhonePe marks a key step in broadening the reach of digital payments by expanding device-based tokenization, empowering Mastercard cardholders exclusively to Tap & Pay at merchant outlets, both within the country and abroad. India plays a pivotal role in setting the pace of digital commerce globally, and Mastercard is proud to support this momentum with solutions that make transactions smarter and safer.”

Users can securely add their credit and debit cards on the PhonePe app through a simple, one-time process. Once the card is tokenized and saved, they can make seamless payments by selecting the card and tapping their smartphone against any PoS machine and shop online.

The new feature will begin rolling out to Mastercard cardholders on the PhonePe app in a phased manner.

About PhonePe:

PhonePe Limited (Formerly PhonePe Private Limited) is one of India’s leading technology companies. Headquartered in India, the PhonePe digital payments app was launched in 2016. As of March 2025, PhonePe has over 61 Crore (618 million) registered users and a digital payments acceptance network spread across over 4.4 Crore (44+ million) merchants.

PhonePe’s products and services include Consumer Payments (including Digital Distribution Services), Merchant Payments, Lending and Insurance Distribution services, and New Platforms, which comprises Share.Market (stock broking and mutual funds distribution platform), Pincode (omni-channel hyperlocal commerce platform connecting consumers with local offline stores), and Indus Appstore (Android-based mobile app marketplace).

For more details, contact: [email protected]

About Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re building a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.