'Govern yourself like HDFC or SBI, build like Google or Amazon': PhonePe's Sameer Nigam

The phrase describes a split responsibility. PhonePe should operate with the controls, reliability and accountability expected from major banks such as HDFC or SBI. At the same time, it should create products and improve technology with the speed associated with Google or Amazon. This matters because payments depend on trust, not only convenience.

PhonePe faces oversight from the RBI, SEBI and IRDAI across its businesses. It also undergoes roughly 130 to 140 external audits each year. Nigam says governance must become a daily habit, not an occasional response to a problem. Every employee receives mandatory orientation, including the company’s roughly 50,000-person sales network.

The approach aims to prevent rapid innovation from weakening customer protection or regulatory compliance. Nigam’s warning is that companies must not reverse the priorities: they should govern like financial institutions while building like technology companies. PhonePe’s future growth, including its planned overseas expansion, will test whether it can maintain both speeds.

An initial public offering, or IPO, is when a private company offers its shares to the public for the first time and seeks a stock-market listing. It can raise capital and give existing shareholders a public market for their shares. The process also depends heavily on investor confidence and predictable market conditions.

PhonePe had received board approvals, completed roadshows and was nearly ready to proceed. It paused the plans in March 2026 after geopolitical uncertainty and market volatility disrupted the environment. Conflicts can unsettle investors, while volatile markets can cause sharp changes in share prices and make valuation difficult.

Nigam said the company would like to return when there is stability, but gave no listing date. He declined to discuss a possible valuation, noting that the draft prospectus reflected the past rather than the future. PhonePe therefore retains its IPO groundwork while waiting for more favourable conditions.

PhonePe’s scale is both human and regulatory. Its sales network includes roughly 50,000 people across the country, extending the company’s reach far beyond its central technology operation. Such a network requires consistent training, supervision and ethical standards because employees interact with customers and merchants at scale.

The company also undergoes around 130 to 140 external audits annually. Nigam described that frequency as roughly one audit every two working days. PhonePe operates under RBI, SEBI and IRDAI oversight through different businesses. Every hire, including sales staff, receives mandatory orientation, and the company says ethics are non-negotiable.

These figures show why compliance cannot be treated as paperwork added after growth. It must be built into everyday operations. As PhonePe expands feature-phone payments and prepares an international business, maintaining consistent controls across products, employees and jurisdictions will become increasingly important.

Payments companies handle activities built on trust. If growth outruns governance, mistakes, weak processes or unethical conduct could affect many users at once. Customers might face unreliable transactions, payment problems or weaker protection, while merchants could experience disruptions. The wider system could also lose confidence in digital payments.

PhonePe’s own scale shows why this risk matters. It has roughly 50,000 people in its sales network and undergoes around 130 to 140 external audits each year. Nigam says the company is overseen by the RBI, SEBI and IRDAI across its businesses. He also says employees receive mandatory orientation and cannot rely on jugaad at this scale.

The consequence is not that innovation must stop. Rather, innovation needs strong controls around it. Bank-level governance can help detect problems, enforce accountability and protect trust as products expand. This becomes especially important as PhonePe adds feature-phone payments and prepares to operate more broadly in the UAE.

UPI 123Pay is PhonePe’s feature-phone payments offering. It uses encrypted SMS-based payments to extend UPI beyond smartphones. The goal is inclusion: people who cannot afford an entry-level smartphone should still be able to access digital payments. PhonePe renewed this effort as smartphone affordability became a growing concern.

Users can send money, check balances after direct benefit transfers and receive payments through a UPI QR code. PhonePe is also adding bill payments and mobile recharges. The technology approach follows PhonePe’s acquisition of Gupshup’s GSPay technology stack in June 2025, while the company publicly announced UPI 123Pay in August 2026.

PhonePe is working to support devices from HMD, Nokia, Itel and Lava. Nigam said the service adds about 15,000 to 20,000 users daily and has reached roughly three lakh monthly transactions, up from one lakh. PhonePe sees language tools and conversation as another future access point.

Allowing Indian travellers to pay abroad through UPI is a limited cross-border use case. It depends on participating merchants accepting and displaying UPI. A full-stack UAE business would be broader. It would give PhonePe a local payments presence rather than merely extending an Indian customer’s payment option overseas.

PhonePe’s proposed UAE strategy includes three parts: the app, merchant acquiring and remittances. Merchant acquiring means building the capability to serve businesses that accept payments. Remittances would support money transfers, while the app would provide the customer-facing experience. This approach responds to a practical problem: merchants may accept UPI without prominently advertising it, so travellers continue using cards.

In September 2026, PhonePe received in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for two licences. They cover retail payment services and card schemes, plus stored value facilities. Commercial operations still require final regulatory approval, so the broader business remains planned rather than fully operational.

UPI is a digital payment system that lets a user instruct money to move directly between bank accounts. In general, the payer selects a recipient through a UPI identifier or QR code, authorises the transaction, and the participating banks process the transfer. The article focuses on PhonePe’s products rather than detailing this mechanism, so this explanation uses established background knowledge.

PhonePe’s feature-phone service shows the same idea through another interface. Users can send money, check balances and receive payments through a UPI QR code, while encrypted SMS supports feature-phone access. The payment experience changes by device, but the underlying account-based transfer remains the core purpose.

The RBI, SEBI and IRDAI oversee different parts of PhonePe’s business because they regulate different financial areas. The article names these regulators but does not assign each one a specific PhonePe activity. Their oversight reflects the company’s varied fintech operations and the need for controls across payments, securities-related activity and insurance-related services.