Exclusive: Visa invests $4 million in payment aggregator Phi Commerce

Global card network Visa has invested $4 million in Pune-based payment aggregator Phi Commerce, acquiring a 2.5% stake in the company, two people familiar with the development told The Head and Tale.

Apart from its role as a traditional payments network, Visa is “looking to strengthen its relationship with banks, and offer issuing and acquiring solutions to banks globally,” one of the sources said. 

Through the deal, Visa is expected to leverage Phi Commerce's payment technology stack, the source added. The initial focus will be catering to the Asia-Pacific region, with Southeast Asia likely to be among the first markets.

The investment comes at a time when global payments networks, including Visa, are facing increasing competition from domestic payment networks and alternative payment systems in several markets.

In April last year, Phi Commerce raised $5 million from Japanese payments technology company Digital Garage. As part of that deal, Phi Commerce entered a strategic partnership with Digital Garage's payment arm, DG Financial Technology, to introduce its payment technology into Japan and broader regional markets.

"Such strategic partnerships are giving Phi Commerce a route to take its technology to global markets without having to obtain any payment licences and build regulated operations in every market it enters," the second source said. 

The payment aggregator is eyeing a tech play in global markets instead of getting into direct acquiring, like other Indian payments companies such as Pine Labs, Razorpay. 

“Phi is eyeing strategic partnership route for its global expansion, where it aims to offer payments tech stack,” one of the sources shared. “As part of this strategy, Phi provides the technology while local institutions bring market access, regulatory licences and established relationships with banks and merchants.”

According to a person aware of the development, the company is also eyeing entry into the other geographies through similar strategic investment route.

"Phi is also in talks with someone in the GCC region to enter into a similar investment partnership," one of the sources said. “It is in talks with some family offices in the Middle East, who operate in payments space, for an investment.”

Phi Commerce was founded in 2015 by Jose Thattil, Anil Sharma, Rajesh Londhe, Tushar Shankar, and Ramkumar Subbaraj. With the latest funding, the company has raised a total of $24 million to date. 

Last year, apart from the funding from Digital Garage, Phi Commerce also raised $6 million in May from existing investor Beenext Ventures – which owns a 25% stake in the company. Opus Technologies holds over a 20% stake in Phi.

During FY25, the company posted an operating revenue of Rs 103.9 crore, against Rs 81.7 crore in FY24. The net loss stood at Rs 16 crore during FY25, compared to Rs 29 crore in FY24.

Queries sent to Visa and Phi Commerce did not immediately elicit any response.