Binny Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart, is reportedly in talks to invest USD100-150 million in PhonePe. If completed, the acquisition will be one of the largest individual investments in a new-age company. 

According to media reports, the amount has yet to be finalised, but negotiations have been ongoing and are expected to conclude soon.

PhonePe has previously secured approximately USD450 million in primary capital from PE titans General Atlantic, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, and others at a USD12 billion valuation. Walmart owns 70 per cent of PhonePe, and other Flipkart shareholders such as Tiger Global, Tencent, Qatar Investment Authority, and Microsoft were expected to buy new shares as the business prepared a new ownership structure. 

On the UPI network, the online payments compete directly with Google Pay, Amazon Pay and WhatsApp Pay. Binny Bansal was key in the acquisition of PhonePe by Flipkart in 2016. He also remained on its board and is close to PhonePe founders Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari, according to reports. 

Bansal, who co-founded Flipkart with Sachin Bansal, is well-known for his investments in new-age companies such as Curefood, a cloud kitchen platform that hived off Cultfit, new-age insurer Acko, electric scooter maker Ather Energy, urban mobility startup Yulu, lending platform Rupeek, and a slew of others.