Beyond PoS: Pine Labs sees future growth from digital checkouts and fintech push

Pine Labs’ evolution as a business entity captures the fintech-led transformation sweeping across India. What began as a hardware-driven PoS business now spans four key verticals - merchant checkout technology, EMI and installment payments, online and bill payment solutions and prepaid card services.

While 70 percent of the revenue comes from digital infrastructure and transactions - network powering payments and related services for retailers – the prepaid segment accounts for nearly 30 percent of the revenue. This includes gift cards, stored-value cards, and forex cards - a line that has scaled rapidly due to India’s surge in digital payments.

"A PoS, which once operated like a calculator, now works like a connected screen with payments, loyalty, cashback and installment options integrated," Rau said. "That’s the technology we’ve built over the last decade."

India the Core Growth Market

Despite a growing international footprint across 20 countries, Rau said India remains Pine Labs’ innovation hub and the strongest growth driver. The rapid fintech adoption and growing demand for integrated merchant platforms is the key to the tailwind behind the business.

"Fintech in India right now is as good as it gets anywhere in the world," he said. "We’re actually ahead of markets like China or the US. What we’re doing here sets the benchmark for other markets."

Over the past three to four years, Pine Labs has begun scaling up globally, entering South-East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and more recently, the US. Rau said these markets are already showing strong traction.

“That 58 percent growth in international revenues that you talked of over the last three years is not a flash in the pan,” he added. “We’ve started seeing tremendous success in these regions and it reinforces the scalability of what we’ve built out of India.”

Profitability and Financial Strength

Pine Labs’ financials too have turned a corner, with the company now EBITDA positive for the last five years, and reporting an adjusted EBITDA of Rs 355 crore in FY25, up sharply from Rs 155 crore in FY24.

While it has only recently turned PAT positive, reporting over Rs 4 crore in net profit in the first three months of FY26, Rau said the profitability trend is here to stay despite the investments in technology and product development.

"We’ve built a business that’s not just growing fast but doing so profitably," he said. "Our focus has been on maintaining healthy EBITDA margins while funding future growth through innovation."

Employee ownership remains another focus area, with around 15 percent of Pine Labs’ shareholding with current and former employees through ESOPs, a move critical for attracting and retaining top engineering talent. Rau said this broad ownership supports a longer-term performance culture but acknowledged that it adds to near-term costs.

Read More: Pine Labs IPO: Should investors bet on it?

The Valuation Reset 

Pine Labs is looking to raise Rs 3,900 crore through its IPO, lower than its earlier plan of Rs 5,800 crore. Rau explained that the downsizing is a sign of improved financial strength rather than caution.

“Over the last two quarters, our financial position has improved significantly,” Rau said. “We didn’t need to retire as much debt as we had planned earlier, which allowed us to reduce the primary issue size.”

Of the total, around Rs 2,080 crore will be a fresh issue earmarked for technology investments, international expansion, and selective acquisitions. Read More

The Road Ahead

Looking forward, Pine Labs aims to deepen its checkout ecosystem in India, strengthen the software stack for merchants, and gradually expand globally. The challenge will be to show that its expansion beyond PoS can drive sustained profitability amid intensifying competition in digital payments. Rau said the company will continue to build new revenue lines around software-driven merchant solutions and consumer finance partnerships.

"We’ve built a broad-based business with multiple products firing together," he said. "The idea is to create long-term value - for merchants, consumers, and shareholders alike."

As Pine Labs readies to list on the exchanges, the company insists that the story is no longer about swiping a card, as it aspires to build the digital rails that make every transaction smarter. Investors will be watching closely if the next phase beyond PoS can deliver scale and returns that justify the valuations.

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