PhonePe plans rural push with 50 lakh devices

PhonePe on September 24, 2026 announced plans to hire more than 20,000 frontline sales employees and deploy over 50 lakh payment devices over the next 12 months, through approximately September 2027. About half the devices, including SmartSpeakers and point-of-sale terminals, are slated for rural areas and Tier 6 towns. As of August 2026 the company reported over 72 crore registered users and a payments network covering more than 5 crore merchants. PhonePe cited a new MDR framework, the merchant discount rate applied on digital transactions, as allowing longer-term investment, including a dedicated fund using 5 percent of MDR collected for small merchant expansion. It also pointed to labour codes introduced last year as enabling faster hiring with streamlined compliance. No contested claims found among covered outlets. Rated coverage came only from right-leaning outlets, which foregrounded the rural device totals and hiring scale.