Brands
PhonePe partners with ICICI Bank on UPI Multi-Bank
NEW DELHI: PhonePe, India’s leading digital payments platform, today announced that it has partnered with ICICI Bank on UPI multi-bank model giving its users the option to create and use multiple UPI IDs with ICICI Bank’s “@ibl” handle and YES Bank’s ‘@ybl’ handle on the PhonePe app. This addition, in partnership with ICICI Bank, enables quick and contactless payments to over 200 million registered PhonePe users.
For PhonePe, this is in line with the company’s philosophy of offering users and merchant partners a seamless transaction flow. Collaborating with two banking partners will further strengthen the overall service reliability and uptime of PhonePe's market-leading UPI offering.
PhonePe vice president, financial services and payments- Hemant Gala said, “At PhonePe our effort has always been to give customers more choice while making their transaction experience seamless. Offering the ‘@ibl’ handle to the users on our platform further solidifies PhonePe’s already fruitful association with ICICI Bank. With customers now being able to choose between multiple handles for their UPI IDs, we have achieved another key milestone in our journey towards making payments easy, secure and accessible to all.”
ICICI Bank head-digital channels & partnership Bijith Bhaskar said, “With increase in adoption of digital payments, ICICI Bank remains committed to extend its robust, reliable and scalable ICICI stack for wider use to the customers and partners. In further deepening of its collaborative ecosystem, ICICI Bank is partnering with PhonePe for extending UPI services. We believe that with this partnership both ICICI Bank and PhonePe would be able to capitalise on their immense domain strengths for empowering customers to a seamless and simple digital payment experience.”
The new version of the app to add or create ICICI Bank’s UPI ID will be gradually rolled out to the users in the coming weeks.
Brands
Hocco crosses Rs 530cr revenue in two years
Sauce.vc-led Rs 100cr raise values ice cream brand at Rs 2,500cr pre-money as quick commerce hits 20 per cent of sales.
MUMBAI: Hocco has just scooped a seriously sweet milestone crossing the Rs 530 crore revenue mark in just two full years of operations. The fast-growing Indian ice cream and indulgence brand announced it has raised Rs 100 crore in fresh capital led by Sauce.vc. The round values the company at Rs 2,500 crore pre-money and underscores investor confidence in its rapid scale and distinctive India-first approach.
Founder Ankit Chona said the brand’s success stems from solving real Indian challenges extreme summer heat, fragmented cold chains and culturally rooted tastes. “In India, product development doesn’t end in the lab. It only ends when it survives the street,” he noted. This philosophy has produced viral hits such as Aamchi mango ice cream, BIX cake-sponge sandwiches, the Oh cone and culturally relevant collaborations like Haldiram’s Barfi and festive Modak specials.
Hocco currently operates manufacturing facilities in Ahmedabad and Panipat with a production capacity of approximately 3 lakh litres per day, running near full capacity in peak season. The fresh capital will help expand this to around 4.5 lakh litres per day.
Quick commerce has emerged as a major growth engine, now contributing ~20 per cent of overall business and growing nearly 2x year-on-year. The channel has boosted product discovery, increased consumption frequency and helped extend ice cream beyond its traditional seasonal limits.
Sauce.vc founder Manu Chandra said, “At Sauce, we believe that when you chance upon an outlier business, you double down with stronger conviction. We see Hocco as just that.”
With a strong innovation pipeline, deeper distribution and continued focus on cultural relevance, Hocco is entering its third year aiming to capture even more mind space and market share. In a category long dominated by legacy players, this young brand is proving that the coolest way to win is to build for India’s realities, one scoop, one street and one satisfied craving at a time.
