PhonePe plans 20,000 new hires to expand merchant network in rural India

Walmart

24/09/2026 11:36

Sept 24 (Reuters) - Digital payments platform PhonePe PHOP.NS said on Thursday it plans to hire 20,000 additional on-roll sales employees over the next year as part of a push to expand its merchant network into India's smaller towns and villages.

Here are some more details:    
The Walmart-backed company plans to deploy more than 5 million devices, including smart speakers and point-of-sale terminals, over the next 12 months to expand digital payments acceptance across rural areas.
The move follows India's NPCI decision to levy a 0.4% fee on select UPI merchant transactions, with a portion of the proceeds earmarked to expand digital payments acceptance among small merchants in underserved regions.
"The recently announced MDR framework allows the company to take a long view and invest in merchant expansion," PhonePe said.
As of August, PhonePe's payments network comprised more than 720 million registered users and over 50 million merchants.

 (Reporting by Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)
 ((Abhinav.Parmar@thomsonreuters.com;))