Initially, Pine Labs user to provide services to the retail petroleum industry. In 2009, the startup realised that Indian merchants require digital payment services to connect with financial institutions. It will not only digitize the financial transactions but will also help these business firms to grow further.
Pine Labs started collaborating with banks and payment aggregators to enhance merchants engagement with customers. The firm introduced Point of Sale(PoS) terminals to process all forms of digital transactions.
About Pine Labs’ Systematic Growth with Time
Lokvir Kapoor, Rajul Garg, and Tarun Upaday co-founded Pine Labs in 1998. It provides technology solutions to its clients to facilitate financial transactions. The startup has helped its clients in revenue growth through the reduction in cost, complexity, and risks of financial activities.
The company provides the digital financial solution and provides insights related to merchants businesses to help them make the right decisions.
As of now, around 100000+ business firms are using Pine Labs advanced technology to process their financial transactions worldwide. In India, Pine Labs has a huge network of 350000 PoS terminals spread in 3700+ towns.
In the initial years, Pine Labs operations were focused on the retail petroleum industry. Later, the firm realised that the mainstream payment system also needs its digital services. That was the turning point for Pine Labs in 2009. They started the partnership with banks, merchants to ease the payment process.
In 2012, the firm expanded its operations beyond payment services to provide extra features related to business development. It includes services like risk assessment, financial analytics, brand offers, and others. It helped the firm to collaborate with 21 financial institutions and 100+ brands during this period.
In 2017, the company started its operations globally. Malaysia was the second country after India where it started its operations in collaboration with CIMB bank.
Pine Labs got unicorn status in 2020. The company is planning to start its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2022.
Financial Growth and Funding Details of Pine Labs
Currently, Pine Labs is providing its services to more than 150,000+ merchants in India and Malaysia. You can perform the digital transaction on Pine Labs PoS terminals by cards, QR codes, or phone number billing. The company also offers working capital loans, loyalty services via PinePerks etc. Pine Labs has collaborated with big giants like Apple, Samsung, Google Pay, Sony etc.
The firm has raised a total of $310.8 million from its major investors including Sequoia India, PayPal, Temasek, Actis Capital, Altimeter Capital, Madison India Capital and Sofina. Pine Labs latest financial round helped in surging its market cap to $2 billion.
The company recorded profit first time in FY2017. Later, it slipped to losses in FY18, FY19 due to growing expenses.
Recent Acquisitions by Pine Labs
Pine Labs has recently acquired Fave with a deal of $45 million. Initially, Pine Labs invested in Fave in July 2020. In 2019, Pine Labs has also acquired Qwikcilver, a gift card technology startup for $110 million.
Talking about the Fave acquisition deal, B. Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs said:
“Consumers have tremendous choices in their payment types. They want to be sure that they save on every transaction. Fave helps consumers apply their best rewards, coupons, gift cards, and cashback on all transactions in a seamless manner.”
Talking about the current acquisition deal, Joel Neoh, CEO of Fave, said:
“Excited to work with Amrish (Rau) and the Pine Labs team to continue expanding the Fave platform across the Asia region. Pine Labs has been a great partner and investor for us, and it only made sense for us to join our synergies together and work towards our shared vision of building a truly global consumer and merchant platform.”
In the next couple of years, Pine Labs plans to increase its total payment volume (TPV) to $100 billion from $23 billion.
