- Moneycontrol
If I can grow the e-commerce market without having to get on the seller side, that is my preference:
PhonePe forayed into hyperlocal e-commerce on April 4 with a new app called Pincode, which is a part of the Open National Digital Commerce Network. However, this marks one of PhonePe’s several forays in the recent past. Sitting down for an interview on the sidelines of the launch of Pincode, PhonePe co-founder Sameer Nigam talks about this recent foray, the company’s plans with lending and why the acquisition of ZestMoney fell through. Edited excerpts:
How does Pincode play into the larger PhonePe scheme of things? How much are you investing in this new app?
In terms of how it plays out and the reasons for getting in right, we've been working with 35-36 million offline merchants over the last five-odd years and especially during COVID, we saw them come out in real solidarity during all the lockdowns, in terms of making sure all our lives run smoothly. When the market started turning again and everyone was back in the digital-connected world and travelling again, that number went back towards online in certain categories.