Phonepe, the American retailer Walmart-backed fintech giant, is all set to debut in the public market in the second half of FY26. But it’s a tough road ahead for the company, considering it derives a chunk of its revenue from just one vertical.

Just in the 2024 financial year, the company made over Rs 5,000 crore in revenue—74% higher than in the previous year—while cutting its losses by nearly 800 crore. As much as 96% of this top line was thanks to Phonepe’s payments business.

The worry here is that if anything about the payments business were to go south, it will be hard for Phonepe to pivot in time. Adding to Phonepe’s woes is its financial-services arm, which isn’t anything to brag about either.

In the five years since it launched Phonepe Insurance, the company has sold about 15 million policies. The total premium value now amounts to Rs 2,000 crore ($230 million). For any other insurance-broking startup, these numbers might have been considered decent, if not impressive.

But this is a company with over 600 million users in India. It burnt over Rs 1,000 crore to push its insurance product—of which 70% was spent on advertising and promotions alone. Yet, Phonepe Insurance has generated a meagre Rs 150 crore revenue in the last five years. The vertical hardly contributes 4% to the company’s top line. To make matters worse, the company is also coming to terms with a hard truth: you can automate payments, but insurance still needs a human touch.

Explore more infographics like this in The Ken -
Visual Stories
Infographic
See more visual stories