The company is expected to acquire two wealth management firms for a total enterprise value of $75 million, as it looks to open new revenue streams and diversify its offerings for users of its payments services, two people aware of the discussions told ET.
PhonePe will buy investment technology platforms — WealthDesk for roughly $50 million and OpenQ for $25 million, sources in the know confirmed on condition of anonymity.
At present, PhonePe runs a mutual fund distribution licence.
The development comes on the back of PhonePe applying for a mutual fund licence with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in December, last year.
In an earlier interaction with the media, company cofounder and chief executive, Sameer Nigam had said that he expects close to 40%-45% of PhonePe’s overall revenues to come from financial services. The company also had plans to enter the merchant-lending business in the first half of 2022.
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“PhonePe is acquiring WealthDesk. The founder and the entire team will be working as a part of the PhonePe group and both the platforms will remain independent. WealthDesk will continue to remain an open platform for all players, and the founder Ujjwal Jain will continue defining the vision for his company,” a PhonePe spokesperson said in a statement, when ET reached out.
“PhonePe is also acquiring OpenQ (“Quantech Capital Investment Advisors Private Limited”), subject to necessary regulatory approvals. Post acquisition, OpenQ will be instrumental in creating the Wealth Ecosystem for the PhonePe Group,” added the company.
PhonePe refused to comment on the contours of the deal.
Founded in 2016, WealthDesk is an investment technology platform that captures the entire asset management and advisory value chain from portfolio creation on top of equities and exchange traded fund (ETFs), productising these into investment products called WealthBaskets, which are stock and ETF portfolios, that are now available to retail investors on top of broking. WealthDesk also enables large scale distribution through broking partners with strong network effects.
OpenQ also offers retail and institutional investors trading baskets and investment analytics services.
Newswire Bloomberg
first reported on the acquisitions on Tuesday.
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