Sameer Nigam, Founder and CEO, PhonePe, said on September 9 that the company is preparing to operationalise the licence. He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Global Fintech Festival 2026 in Mumbai.
The UAE business will allow PhonePe to offer services including its own wallet, gift cards and remittances, besides enabling local merchant payments, Nigam said.
“If you are a UAE citizen, hopefully in the near future you will be able to make payments on a UAE point of sale (PoS) device and also send money to India,” he said.
Nigam said the UAE would be PhonePe’s first foreign market and that the company intends to build a global business over the next decade. He did not comment on the possibility of introducing a merchant discount rate (MDR) for UPI transactions in India.
The UAE entry comes as PhonePe expands its card and cross-border payment capabilities in partnership with Visa.
The companies announced new features at the Global Fintech Festival that will allow eligible Visa cardholders to make contactless payments using their Android phones, make payments through supported Visa QR codes in select overseas markets and enable small merchants to accept contactless card payments without a separate point-of-sale terminal.
PhonePe said its cross-border QR payment feature will initially cover 14 international markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Japan, China and South Korea. The company plans to roll out the services in phases.
PhonePe’s Smart Accept feature will allow compatible smartphones to function as contactless card acceptance devices, potentially reducing the need for small merchants to purchase dedicated POS terminals.
The company had more than 71.5 crore registered users as of July 2026 and an acceptance network of over 5 crore merchants, according to PhonePe.
-With PTI inputs
