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

Sept 24 : Digital payments platform PhonePe 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 per cent 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.