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PhonePe plans to accelerate the expansion of its merchant network across India’s towns and villages by hiring more than 20,000 frontline sales personnel over the next year and deploying over 50 lakh payment devices, including SmartSpeakers and POS devices, over the next 12 months. Around 50% of these devices will be deployed in rural India, taking digital payment acceptance deeper into Tier 6 towns and rural areas.
The recently announced MDR framework, including a dedicated fund using 5% of the MDR amount collected for small-merchant expansion, is enabling PhonePe to make deeper investments in digital payment infrastructure, particularly in rural markets. The new labour codes with streamlined compliance are also helping the company onboard a larger on-roll workforce faster and more efficiently.
The expansion will help PhonePe reach more small merchants, complete KYC, deploy payment devices and provide ongoing support, while bringing lakhs of merchants further into the formal financial ecosystem. As of August 2026, PhonePe has over 72 crore registered users and a digital payments acceptance network covering more than 5 crore merchants across India.