India, July 10 -- For the everyday Indian, PhonePe is just a free UPI app. One rarely pays anything extra to PhonePe for splitting a dinner bill with friends, phone recharges, or even paying the neighbourhood kirana store. But this is an entirely simplistic view, and one that misses the many nuances of running a modern-day fintech super app.

Having raised about $2.89 Bn since 2015, PhonePe has leveraged the capital to grow its user base and build a business model which seems innocuous enough at first glance, but where the sum is greater than the parts.

Despite that, the biggest red flag for PhonePe is its profitability, particularly as the company prepares for an IPO in the near future. But to examine how long it might take PhonePe to b...