Sameer Nigam: Founder & CEO of PhonePe | Biography

Sameer Nigam is an Indian Entrepreneur who founded PhonePe, a UPI-based online payment system in 2015 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He also served as the Senior Vice President of engineering at Flipkart. In 2009, he launched his very first venture Mime360, which connects content owners to content publishers. He made a personal investment in an organization called Artifacia on 14 January 2016. He was listed in the top Indian business leaders 40 under 40 list by The Economic Times. As of 2017, he has a net worth of Rs. 17.7 crore.

Let's go through the success story of Sameer Nigam along with getting a glance at Sameer Nigam's Net worth, Education, personal life, how he founded PhonePe & more.

Sameer Nigam Biography

Sameer Nigam - Family
Sameer Nigam - Education
Sameer Nigam - Professional Life
Sameer Nigam - Founder of Mime360
Sameer Nigam - Founder of PhonePe
Sameer Nigam - Controversy
Sameer Nigam - Honors & Awards

Sameer Nigam - Family

Sameer Nigam was born in Delhi and currently resides in Bangalore, Karnataka. His father worked in the Indian Navy and is an IIT graduate. Sameer Nigam's mother is an entrepreneur and cleared her IAS on the first attempt at 40. Sameer's wife is a consultant and together they have a son and a daughter.

Nigam made his way from Noida to Mumbai and finally to Bangalore where his company PhonePe is headquartered. His venture got a tremendous boost from the demonetization policy, which the Indian government announced in the same launching year of PhonePe.

Sameer Nigam - Education

Sameer completed his formal education at DPS Noida. He received his Computer Engineering degree from the University of Mumbai. He further went to the University of Arizona for a Master of Science in Computer Engineering (1991-2001). Later, he studied Master of Business Administration in Entrepreneurship at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (2007-2009).

Sameer Nigam - Professional Life

Sameer served as the Director of Search Product Development at Shopzilla from May 2001 to June 2007. He then launched his venture, Mime360 in 2009 which is an online social media distribution channel. The company was later acquired by Flipkart.

He served at Flipkart from October 2011 to August 2015. While working for the eCommerce giant, he worked in several divisions including Marketing and Engineering as Vice President and Senior Vice President respectively. He further launched his digital wallet platform PhonePe in 2015, where he is positioned as the CEO.

He did exceptionally well in his corporate career with cordial entrepreneurial experiences to his credit. He displayed his skills in product marketing, eCommerce, strategic partnerships, online marketing, digital strategy, user experience, web applications, startups, mobile marketing, digital media, special needs, business development, web development, web analytics, and many more.

He is highly skilled in team management, digital marketing, non-medical homecare, lead generation, search engine optimization, strategy, mobile applications, mobile advertising, and online advertising.

Sameer Nigam - Founder of Mime360

In 2009, Sameer launched his first venture Mime360 (Mallers Incorporation), an online media distribution channel headquartered in Mumbai, India. The company offers an exchange platform connecting content owners with content publishers including Saregama, Indiatimes, and others.

Mime's security is aided by API Feeds that help to prevent piracy and allow a large number of publishers to sell the licensed content globally. Most importantly, Mime eliminates various infrastructure costs for partners including content management, storage, and local data center bandwidth, and authorizes content owners to even set regional pricing.

Mime360 was acquired by Flipkart. The eCommerce giant has been looking to acquire small companies to grow the team. After the acquisition, some of Mime's employees joined Flipkart to launch a digital music distribution service later. The strong entrepreneurial zeal, vision, and experience kept Sameer going and he soon launched another venture.

Sameer Nigam - Founder of PhonePe

Sameer launched his Unified Payments Interface (UPI) based startup, PhonePe in December 2015. He is the Founder and CEO of Bangalore headquartered PhonePe. He is a member of the Board of Directors at the company and advises on Marketing and several other strategies.

Sameer along with two of his friends, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer brought the idea of launching and designing an online payment app based on UPI. The PhonePe application went live in August 2016. It is available to users in over 11 Indian languages.

PhonePe was acquired by Flipkart in 2016. However, the e-commerce giant came into the ownership of US-based Walmart Incorporation in 2018 worth $16 billion. The acquisition of PhonePe was with the aim of expanding its online shopping footprint in India.

PhonePe's first annual report shows a 73% revenue increase to INR 5,064 crore, with the company posting an adjusted profit of INR 197 crore after a INR 738 crore loss last year. Founders Rahul Chari and Sameer Nigam each earned INR 5 crore in FY24, with lower ESOP valuations compared to the previous year.

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Sameer Nigam - Controversy

PhonePe founder and CEO Sameer Nigam issued an apology on Sunday for his comments about Karnataka's draft job reservation Bill, clarifying that he never meant to offend the state or its people. His statement came in response to a 'Boycott PhonePe' campaign initiated by Kannada groups, including the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other pro-Kannada organizations. The campaign started on social media after Nigam's post on X, which commented on the Karnataka Cabinet's approval of 'The Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024'.

Here is the post that he made on X which caused backlash:

I am 46 years old. Never lived in a state for 15+ yrs

My father worked in the Indian Navy. Got posted all over the country. His kids don't deserve jobs in Karnataka?

I build companies. Have created 25000+ jobs across India! My kids dont deserve jobs in their home city?

Shame.

— Sameer.Nigam (@_sameernigam) July 17, 2024

Below is the apology that he shared on X:

My personal statement, clarifying my views on the Karnataka draft job reservation bill and its unintended consequences. pic.twitter.com/vt5aLjmezK

— Sameer.Nigam (@_sameernigam) July 21, 2024

Sameer Nigam - Honors & Awards

The Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania conferred him with the Wharton Venture Award in 2008. He has participated in two events. He attended the 16th NASSCOM Product Conclave 2019 on 5 November 2019, held in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Asia. He attended Money 20/20 Asia 2019 as a Speaker on 19 March 2019 held at Central Region, Singapore, Asia.

His venture PhonePe was conferred with a list of awards, which are as follows:-

• PhonePe was recognized by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for attracting the largest number of merchant transactions on the UPI network. (2018)
• Received Best Mobile Payment Product or Service Category at the IAMAI India Digital Awards 2018
• Won the UPI Digital Innovation Award from NPCI (2018)
• Won the SuperStartUp Asia Award (2018)
• Won the Telecom and Technology category award from India Advertising Awards (2018)
• Won the Best Mobile Payment Product or Service at the 9th India Digital Awards 2019 conducted by IAMAI
• Received the Best Digital Wallet initiative at the 8th annual Indian Retail & eRetail Awards 2019 conducted by Zee Business and The Economic Times.
• Awarded Fintech Person of the Year - India at the Global Fintech Fest 2024.

FAQs

What is the net worth of Sameer Nigam?

Sameer Nigam has a net worth of INR. 17.7 crore (as of 2017).

What is Sameer Nigam education?

Sameer Nigam has completed a Computer Engineering degree from the University of Mumbai, an MS from the University of Arizona, and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Who is the PhonePe Owner?

PhonePe is owned by Flipkart.

Who is the PhonePe founder?

Sameer Nigam is the founder and CEO of PhonePe.

What is Sameer Nigam age?

Sameer Nigam is 46 years old.