Pine Labs raises $100 million from Invesco ahead of planned IPO

(Representative image)

Ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO) in the US, Pine Labs said that the company has raised $100 million from the US-based investment management company Invesco, in a fresh funding round. The investment has been done through the Invesco Developing Markets Fund.

This comes after Pine Labs raised $600 million at a valuation of $3 billion led by Fidelity, Blackrock and other investors in July this year. The company which provides merchant payment, PoS, and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) solutions is also backed by Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, Actis, PayPal, and Mastercard amongst other global investors.

Amrish Rau, CEO of Pine Labs said on the fundraise, “Over the last 18 months we have scaled our Prepaid Issuing stack, Online Payments, and also the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) offering. We continue to make progress in the larger Asian markets with our BNPL platform. Very excited to have a marquee investor like Invesco join us in the journey.”

“The Invesco Developing Markets Fund is pleased to invest in Pine Labs, a leading fintech services company in India that fits our strategy of seeking high-quality companies that have durable long-term growth potential,” said Justin Leverenz, CIO of Developing Markets Equities at Invesco.

While this investment has not been termed as a pre-IPO round, it comes at a time when discussions around Pine Labs’ IPO are picking pace. According to a report, Pine Labs has appointed Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as advisors for its IPO and is eyeing a valuation of $6 billion.

In an interview with Moneycontrol on April 9, Pine Labs Chief Executive Officer Amrish Rau had revealed that the company had been in touch with law firms, auditors, and bankers for a year, but has not yet decided on when it will list.

"I am not a believer in talking about IPOs beforehand but I certainly want to understand what it takes, how the market operates and getting your business practices in place to be ready. But we are not in a position to say when the IPO will happen," Rau had said.

Founded in 1998, Pine Labs processes payments worth $30 million in a year. It serves over 150,000 merchants in 3,700 cities across Asia and the Middle East. It has also enabled its BNPL credit service to 150,000 outlets.