Digital payments giant PhonePe has announced plans to hire 20,000 additional on-roll sales employees over the next year. The recruitment drive is part of an aggressive push to extend its merchant network into India’s smaller towns and rural hinterlands.
Key Expansion Plans
- Massive Device Deployment: The Walmart-backed company aims to deploy over 5 million acceptance devices—including smart speakers and point-of-sale (POS) terminals—across rural regions over the next 12 months.
- Capitalizing on New NPCI Rules: The expansion comes on the heels of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) introducing a 0.4% Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) fee on select UPI merchant transactions. A portion of these funds is earmarked specifically to expand digital payment acceptance in underserved areas.
- Long-Term Strategy: According to PhonePe, the new MDR framework provides the financial foundation needed to take a long-term view and make heavy investments in merchant expansion.
Current Reach
As of August, PhonePe's payment network already serves:
- Over 720 million registered users
- More than 50 million merchants
