New Delhi, NFAPost: Pine Labs, one of Asia’s leading merchant commerce platforms, announced an investment round with the entry of new investors Fidelity Management & Research Company, funds managed by BlackRock, Ishana and Tree Line, a fund advised by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC.
IIFL AMC via its ‘Late-Stage Tech Fund’ and Kotak are also participating in this investment round, which is subject to approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), bringing the total round size to over $600 million.
Pine Labs continues to be well-financed and has been EBITDA profitable for several years. The company is backed by Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, Actis, PayPal and Mastercard amongst other leading global investors.
Pine Labs Chief Executive Officer B. Amrish Rau said over the last year, Pine Labs has made significant progress in its Offline to Online strategy in India and the direct-to-consumer play in Southeast Asia.
“Our full-stack approach to payments and merchant commerce has allowed us to grow in-month merchant partnerships by nearly 100% over the last year. We are excited to bring on board a marquee set of new investors in this round and appreciate the confidence they have placed on the Pine Labs business model and our growth momentum,” said B. Amrish Rau.
Sequoia Capital Managing Director Shailendra Singh said Pine Labs has rapidly transformed from a single product company allowing retail acceptance of payments to a broader payments platform.
“The company now serves hundreds of thousands of merchants across payments acceptance on cards and UPI processing tens of billions of payment volume; the company also has the market-leading PayLater offering with ~$3B in annualized PayLater transactions,” said Shailendra Singh.
Through its acquisitions of QwikCilver and Fave, Shailendra Singh said Pine Labs now has the market-leading pre-paid platform in this region as well as the top consumer loyalty product in this market. “With leadership across multiple categories, the company is very well positioned to help drive immense value to its merchant partners in India and across other SEA markets,” said Shailendra Singh.
Pine Labs offers a range of customized offerings for in-store and doorstep Payments, Pay Later at the point of sale, Prepaid Issuance and Online Payments to large, mid-market and small retailers. The company has also beefed-up investment on the consumer side of the business with the acquisition of Fave in April 2021. Over 6 million consumers across over 40,000 merchant establishments now have access to the Fave app.
About Pine Labs
One of Asia’s leading merchant commerce platforms, Pine Labs serves prominent large, mid-sized and small merchants across Asia and the Middle East. The company’s unique cloud-based platform enables it to offer a wide range of payment acceptance and merchant commerce solutions including enterprise automation systems such as inventory management and customer relationship management.
Its stored value platform includes issuing, processing, and distributing digital gift cards for corporate customers around the world. In April 2021, Pine Labs acquired Fave, a leading consumer fintech platform that provides a smart payment app to the smart generation of consumers looking to pay and save. Fave is currently operational in 35 cities across Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia and will soon be launching in India. Incorporated in Singapore, Pine Labs’ key investors include Sequoia India, Actis Capital, Temasek, PayPal and Mastercard.
