PhonePe to hire 20,000 additional on-roll sales employees in rural India, deploy over 50 lakh payment devices

New Delhi: PhonePe on Thursday announced plans to accelerate the expansion of its merchant network and take digital payment infrastructure deeper into India’s towns and villages.

As part of the expansion, PhonePe plans to hire more than 20,000 frontline sales personnel on its rolls over the next year. The company will also deploy more than 50 lakh payment devices over the next 12 months, including SmartSpeakers and POS devices with approximately 50 per cent of these devices in rural India, taking digital payment acceptance deeper into Tier 6 towns and rural geographies.

The recently announced MDR framework allows the company to take a long view and invest in merchant expansion. Initiatives like a dedicated fund using 5 per cent of the MDR amount collected earmarked for small merchant expansion, are further catalysing these investments, especially in deep rural geographies including tier 6 towns and villages. The new labour codes introduced last year, are also enabling the company to hire faster with streamlined compliances, helping onboard a large on-roll employment workforce seamlessly.

India has built one of the world’s largest digital payments ecosystems. The next phase of this journey will require continued investment in the merchant acceptance infrastructure that enables small businesses in every part of the country to participate in the digital economy.

PhonePe’s planned expansion is aimed at precisely this opportunity. A significantly larger frontline on roll workforce will enable PhonePe to reach merchants in smaller towns and villages, onboard them onto digital payments, complete KYC, deploy payment devices and provide ongoing merchant support.

The expansion will also help bring lakhs of small merchants further into the formal financial ecosystem. A digitally active and KYC-compliant merchant network can create greater visibility into business activity and enable eligible merchants to access a wider range of formal financial services, including credit offered by lending institutions.

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