PhonePe targets feature-phone payments and AI-led merchant tools in next inclusion push
At GFF 2026, PhonePe outlined a roadmap spanning UPI 123Pay for feature-phone users, low-ticket savings and faster credit, alongside a rebuilt Business App, SmartStore, CRM, inventory tools and hyperlocal Pulse Pro insights for merchants.
What happened
PhonePe outlined an India-focused financial-inclusion roadmap spanning feature-phone UPI, merchant credit, low-ticket savings, payment products and AI tools.
Key facts
- Over 20 crore feature-phone users
- Over 8 lakh UPI 123Pay-enabled devices shipped
- More than 35 million NRIs enabled via NRE/NRO accounts
- Daily FD starting at Rs 100 per day
- Daily gold, silver and mutual-fund SIPs starting at Rs 10
- Loan disbursals in 2.5 minutes
- Over 11 billion monthly transactions
- Insights mapped to 40-square-metre cells
Why this matters
PhonePe’s roadmap creates partnership and acquisition opportunities in merchant CRM, inventory intelligence, feature-phone distribution and embedded credit, especially for assets that strengthen its last-mile SME operating stack.
What to watch
- Merchant active-user growth and the share using two or more non-payment Business App features.
- Evidence that CRM or inventory users show higher payment retention, transaction volume or credit repayment quality than payments-only merchants.
- Launch of merchant credit products with disclosed approval times, ticket sizes, partner lenders or loss-sharing structure.
- Pricing and adoption of Pulse Pro or other premium analytics products.
- UPI 123Pay transaction growth, repeat usage and merchant acceptance in feature-phone-heavy regions.
- Integrations with GST, accounting, distributor, logistics or supplier platforms.
- Rival responses from Paytm, BharatPe, banks, POS providers and commerce platforms bundling similar merchant tools.
- Regulatory developments around consented transaction-data use, lending underwriting and UPI feature-phone rails.
- Prioritize Business App migration with free or low-cost CRM, catalog and inventory modules tied to payment acceptance.
- Use transaction histories plus inventory and customer data to pre-qualify merchants for small, fast-working-capital credit lines.
- Package Pulse Pro insights as a premium merchant growth product, including local demand forecasts, neighborhood benchmarking and campaign recommendations.
- Expand SmartStore integrations with suppliers, logistics providers and accounting or GST workflows to make merchant data more operationally embedded.
- Build assisted onboarding and vernacular support for feature-phone users and low-digital-literacy merchants, especially outside major metros.
- Use feature-phone payment expansion to deepen merchant acceptance in underserved geographies before attempting higher-margin financial-product cross-sell.