Share.Market: PhonePe Forays Into Stockbroking With New App

PhonePe Pvt. launched a stockbroking app, its third consumer-facing platform, as fintech giant looks to tap India's growing retail investor base.

The discount broking app will allow investors to buy stocks and curate baskets of equities and mutual funds. It will compete with Zerodha, Upstox and Groww. PhonePe's WealthBaskets will be similar to a goal-based basket of exchange-traded securities provided by Smallcase.

"We got into mutual funds about four years ago, insurance about three years ago and then merchant lending," Chief Executive Officer Sameer Nigam said at launch of Share.Market app in Bengaluru on Wednesday. "Stockbroking completes PhonePe's foray into financial services."

Ujjwal Jain has been named chief executive officer and Sujit Modi chief investment officer at Share.Market. The new app follows PhonePe's acquisitions of two wealth management platforms WealthDesk—co-founded by Jain and Modi—and OpenQ in May 2022.

Nigam also hinted that the company's app store would also be launched this year.

The fintech is nearing the completion of its $1 billion fundraise. It has raised about $850 million across five installments at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion or about Rs 99,000 crore.

PhonePe has plans to deploy these funds to build and scale new businesses like insurance, wealth management, lending, stockbroking, ONDC-based shopping and account aggregators, according to the company.

It has forayed into hyperlocal e-commerce via its ONDC-based shopping app, Pincode, which was its second consumer-facing app. The fundraising exercise comes after PhonePe announced that it had changed its domicile to India and fully separated from Flipkart—a move that is synonymous with a company looking to list in India.

Speaking to BQ Prime, Nigam had said earlier that an initial public offering was at least a couple of years away.