Pine Labs picks bankers for $1-bn IPO, gears up to go public in first half of FY26

Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs

Fintech major Pine Labs has picked five investment banks as advisors for its $1-billion initial public offering (IPO) slated to be launched in the first half of financial year 2026, people briefed on the matter told Moneycontrol.

“Axis Capital, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Jefferies will run Pine Labs’ IPO mandate,” one of the persons cited above said. Axis Capital is the only domestic banker because it enjoys Pine Labs’ confidence, given the banking connection between the company and Axis Bank (same group), the person added.

The company plans to list in the first half of FY26 and the IPO preparation is underway, a second person told Moneycontrol, confirming the list of chosen bankers.

Pine Labs did not respond to Moneycontrol’s queries. Emails sent to Axis Capital, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Jefferies remained unanswered.

A secondaries transaction, where existing backers will sell shares in the company and make way for new investors, to the tune of around $100 million is also being planned in a pre-IPO round and final details will be available closer to time, the first person cited above said. Peak XV Partners, Mastercard Inc, Sofina, Madison India Capital are some of the firm’s early backers.

Flipping back

Pine Labs, which is based in Singapore, is in advanced stages of flipping its base back to India and list on the domestic bourses here.

The company had secured initial approval from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to merge its domestic and Singapore entities, Moneycontrol had reported in August.

Pine Labs is likely to seek a valuation of more than $6 billion for its upcoming IPO, slightly higher than $5 billion, the valuation it commanded during its private fundraise in March 2022, as per data available on Tracxn.

In the run-up to the IPO, around April this year, US-based investment firms such as Baron Funds and Invesco had marked up the valuation of Pine Labs. While Baron increased the company’s valuation to $5.8 billion as of April, up from $5.3 billion in September 2023.

Similarly, Invesco, which led a $100-million round in Pine Labs in September 2021, pegged the company’s valuation at around $4.8 billion as of December 2023, up from $3.9 billion as of October last year.

If Pine Labs successfully manages to raise $1 billion in its IPO, it will make one of the largest public market debuts for a new-age company after the likes of Swiggy at $1.35 billion in 2024 and Paytm at $2.5 billion in 2021.

Financial performance

At the group level, which includes its international businesses and subsidiaries, Pine Labs saw consolidated revenue increase 9.8 percent from Rs 1,588 crore in FY23 to Rs 1,743 crore in FY24, with a majority of its business coming from the India entity, per the unaudited consolidated results of the firm.

Despite this growth, the company's net loss widened due to higher operating and finance costs. The Group's net loss after tax increased to Rs 339 crore, compared to Rs 227 crore in FY23.

The India unit of fintech firm Pine Labs reported nearly flat revenue at Rs 1,317 crore for the fiscal year ending March 2024, while its losses surged threefold from Rs 56 crore in FY23 to Rs 187 crore in FY24.