PhonePe launches e-commerce app Pincode

Digital payments firm PhonePe on Tuesday launched a new shopping app called 'Pincode', built on top of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform.

The app will focus on hyperlocal commerce and is now available for download on Google Play Store and App Store.

Pincode is currently live only for customers in Bangalore and will launch in other cities very soon, the Walmart-owned company says.

The Pincode app will promote local shopkeepers and sellers and hopes to digitally connect each city's consumers with all their neighbourhood stores that they usually buy from offline, with the convenience of online ordering, it says.

"The app will help bring out the inherent strength of neighborhood stores, offering consumers a better and wider selection of products than competition, and will include both well-known national brands, as well as locally manufactured groceries, apparel, footwear, accessories etc. This will not only provide a stimulus to the local retailers, but also to the entire local ecosystem powering commerce including the MSMEs and farmers," the fintech startup says.

PhonePe says Pincode will invest significant effort in digitally enabling every Indian shopkeeper spread across every nook and corner, over the next few years.

The fintech company says that ONDC can foster the rapid growth of a new hyperlocal ecommerce business model. Apart from local buyers and sellers, such a model will also benefit other ecosystem participants like the last mile logistics and inventory management players, it says.

"Pincode is a brand-new shopping app and offers a revolutionary new approach to e-commerce, which puts all the local stores and sellers at the heart of the digital shopping growth story. Pincode is built on the ONDC network, which allows us to generate demand for merchants digitized by various seller platforms in an inclusive manner, while creating new opportunities for growth and driving innovation at scale," says Sameer Nigam, CEO and founder of PhonePe.

This comes two weeks after PhonePe raised additional $200 million in primary capital from Walmart, at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. This funding was part of PhonePe's ongoing fundraise of up to $1 billion in capital, following its domicile shift to India last year. The startup had announced its separation from e-commerce major Flipkart in December 2022.

PhonePe has so far raised $650 million from several global investors. In February, the fintech firm raised $100 million in primary capital from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global and TVS Capital Funds.

PhonePe plans to deploy these funds to scale up its payments and insurance businesses in India, as well as to launch and aggressively scale new businesses like lending, stockbroking, ONDC-based shopping and account aggregators over the next few years.

Last month, PhonePe said it hit an annualised TPV (total payment value) run-rate of $1 trillion. This was aided by PhonePe's leadership in the UPI space where it holds over 50% market share by value.