Visa takes 2.5% of India's Phi Commerce in $4M bet on payments tech
What's the deal? Visa has invested $4 million in Pune-based payment aggregator Phi Commerce, taking a 2.5% stake, two people familiar with the matter told The Head and Tale . The late-stage round values the company at $160 million and lifts its total raised to $24 million.
What's the endgame? Visa is "looking to strengthen its relationship with banks, and offer issuing and acquiring solutions to banks globally," one source said. It plans to leverage Phi Commerce's payment technology stack, starting in Asia-Pacific with Southeast Asia among the first markets.
Why now? The deal lands as global payments networks, including Visa, face rising competition from domestic networks and alternative payment systems across several markets.
By the numbers: Phi Commerce posted operating revenue of US$14.1M in FY25, up from US$11.1M a year earlier. Net loss narrowed to US$2.17M from US$3.94M in FY24.
What's the strategy? Rather than direct acquiring like peers Pine Labs and Razorpay, Phi Commerce is pursuing partnerships in which it supplies the technology and local institutions bring licences and bank relationships. The company is in talks with family offices in the Middle East for a similar investment partnership, one source said.
Founded in 2015 by Jose Thattil, Anil Sharma, Rajesh Londhe, Tushar Shankar, and Ramkumar Subbaraj, Phi Commerce last year raised $5 million from Japan's Digital Garage and $6 million from existing investor Beenext Ventures, which owns 25%. Opus TechnologiesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → holds over 20%.
The signal: At $4 million, this is a small cheque, but the structure is the point. Card networks are backing local tech providers to expand across emerging markets without building regulated operations everywhere — a partnership-led route that lets Phi Commerce scale globally without new payment licences.
Read more: The Head and Tale
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