Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs has raised $285 million in a new round of funding from public market crossover investors including Baron Capital Group, Duro Capital, Marshall Wace, Moore Strategic Ventures and Ward Ferry Management. Existing investors Temasek, Lone Pine Capital and Sunley House Capital also participated in this round.
According to the company, this was an oversubscribed round. In addition to primary proceeds, in this round, the company also enabled secondary transactions for its founder, employees and early shareholders.
Pine Labs has set up a strong base in merchant payments and now plans to scale in the online space as well, at the same time continue to power the credit and commerce needs of its offline merchant partners.
“We are very excited to be a part of the technological transformation that Pine Labs is driving on the ground in payments and the multiple interlinkages and efficiencies it is able to create by providing faster, cost-effective consumer access to a broader range of financial products such as BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later), where it is driving a pioneering effort on behalf of the financial system. We are also excited about an Indian business being able to drive regional and potentially global adoption of its Intellectual Property and this represents significant optionality for the future,” said Amit Rajpal, CEO and Portfolio Manager of Marshall Wace Asia.
Pine Labs claims to be serving more than 150,000 merchants across Asia and the Middle East. The company recently also launched its BNPL service in Malaysia and has ambitious plans to take its integrated Pay Later instalment solution to newer markets in Southeast Asia. In April 2021, Pine Labs also announced the acquisition of Fave, Southeast Asia’s fast-growing consumer fintech platform.
Pine Labs has transformed from a single product company offering retail acceptance of payments to a broader payments platform. The company now serves hundreds of thousands of merchants for payments through cards and UPI. In addition, their market leading PayLater product sees $3 billion in annualised EMI transactions. Through the acquisitions of QwikCilver and Fave, Pine Labs now also has an advantage in being the pre-paid issuing platform as well as the consumer loyalty product in this market.
In an exclusive interaction with Moneycontrol, Pine Labs CEO Amrish Rau last month said that the company was also preparing for an IPO but had not decided when or where it would list.
Founded in 1998 as a smart-card payment and loyalty solutions company, Pine Labs was last valued at over $2 Billion in December 2020, when it raised a fresh round of funding from Lone Pine Capital. According to sources, with this new round, the company's valuation has soared to $3 billion. It has become a unicorn, after Mastercard invested in the company in January 2020. Pine Labs is also part of one of the consortiums that have applied for an NUE or New Umbrella Entity license.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
