Pine Labs Limited Files DRHP With SEBI

Pine Labs Limited (“The Company”), a technology company focused on digitizing commerce through digital payments and issuing solutions for merchants, consumer brands and enterprises, and financial institutions has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (“DRHP”) with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”).

The offer comprises of fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to ₹26,000 million (₹2600 crore) (The “Fresh Issue”) and offer for sale Up to 147,822,225 Equity Shares by Selling Shareholders.(The “Offer for Sale”).

Pine Labs processed payments of ₹7,531.05 billion-in gross transaction value (“GTV”) and 3.97 billion transactions through its platforms in the nine months period ending December 31, 2024. As of December 31, 2024, company had 915,731 Merchants, 666 consumer brands and enterprises, and 164 financial institutions, who used its platforms to enable transactions quickly, securely and easily manage their business.

Pine Labs provide a wide suite of services within its Digital Infrastructure and Transaction Platform and Issuing and Acquiring Platform. According to the Redseer Report, in India, company’s core market, it were the largest player in closed and semi-closed loop gift card issuances by transaction value in Fiscal Year 2024. The company were also the largest digital affordability solution enablers at DCPs in terms of total processed value, among the top five in-store digital platforms, and a prominent Bharat Connect transactions processing solutions provider in Fiscal Year 2024, according to the Redseer Report.

The Equity Shares that will be offered through the Red Herring Prospectus are proposed to be listed on the BSE Limited (“BSE”) and National Stock Exchange of India Limited (“NSE”). (“Listing Details”)

Axis Capital Limited, Morgan Stanley India Company Private Limited, Citigroup Global Markets India Private Limited, J.P. Morgan India Private Limited and Jefferies India Private Limited are the Book Running Lead Managers to the issue. (The “BRLMs”)

Payment Tech Firm Pine Labs Heading for IPO in the U.S. - Report

Noida-based payment-tech startup Pine Labs is reportedly heading for an initial public offering (IPO) in the US, by 2022. The unicorn startup has begun early-stage discussions with at least four merchant bankers to work on its IPO, said a report by Times of India, citing its sources privy to the development.

According to a TOI report, the startup had already ‘sounded out banks like JP Morgan, Citi and Morgan Stanley’ for its IPO plans.

Pine Labs, which is one of Asia's leading merchant commerce platforms, is aiming for a valuation of $5 billion. In December 2020, the startup had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Lone Pine Capital, which valued the company at over $2 billion. In 2018, the company had raised $125 million from Temasek and PayPal. In that funding, both Paypal and Temasek have had acquired minority stakes in Pine Labs.

Besides Pine Labs, other startups from India like Delhivery, Policybazaar, Zomato, and Nykaa, among others are also in IPO pipeline.

Pine Labs claims to process payments worth $30 billion per year and serves 150,000 merchants across its 450,000 network points in 3,700 cities. The startup also counts Reliance Retail, Air Asia, Future Retail, Jubilant Foodworks etc., as its customers.

Pine Labs has been one of the beneficiaries of the pandemic-induced acceleration in digital payments across India. Last year on the onset of COVID, Pine Labs launched Pine Labs Paper POS for its merchants. Pine Labs Paper POS is an all-in-one solution for accepting multiple forms of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Bharat QR payments through a single merged static QR at the point of sale.

Noida-based Pine Labs to Buy Asian Biz of German Payment Firm Wirecard

Noida headquartered and Paypal-backed Pine Labs, which provides financing & last-mile retail transaction technology, may buy out the Asian business of debt-ridden German payments company Wirecard, reported Economic Times, citing three people aware of the talks. Pine Labs is in initial discussions currently, said the report.

Citing a person aware of the conversations, the ET report further said, "Multiple other players have also expressed interest in the company’s assets in the region. The legality of the matter still has to be seen."

Besides Pine Labs from India, there are sale enquiries from other compannies as well, as at least four major payment deployers including Hitachi Payments and Atos-backed Wordline Technology.

In a statement to ET, Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs said, Pine Labs is a leading payment and instalment provider in India and South East Asia. We continue to expand our footprints. We wouldn’t like to comment on this topic [buying Wirecard]."

It is to be noted that there are a couple of Indian lawsuits against Wirecard AG’s former COO, Jan Marsalek, who allegedly played a central role in deals that were later stucked in disputes over valuations and unpaid fees. In one of the civil cases, the previous owners of Indian payments company Hermes I-Tickets Private Ltc., are suing former COO Jan Marsalek alongside Wirecard over allegations it made false claims about past payments to the Indian firm. The lawsuits allege that ex-COO was involved in two Indian transactions.

About Pine Labs, the China's Temasek backed company is one of Asia's leading merchant commerce platforms. Last month, Pine Labs launched Pine Labs Paper POS -- an all-in-one solution for accepting multiple forms of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Bharat QR payments through a single merged static QR at the point of sale, available for merchants.

Pine Labs Launches Paper POS, a Merged QR Product to Accept Payments via UPI and Bharat QR Apps

Pine Labs, one of Asia's leading merchant commerce platforms, today announced the launch of Pine Labs Paper POS for its merchants. Pine Labs Paper POS is an all-in-one solution for accepting multiple forms of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Bharat QR payments through a single merged static QR at the point of sale. Merchants can use Pine Labs Paper POS to accept payments across different kinds of UPI and Bharat QR payments, including those from Amazon Pay, Google Pay, PayZapp, PhonePe, YONO, among others. Using the Pine Labs countertop POS machines - Plutus and Plutus Smart - merchants can print a customer chargeslip, thus, immediately confirming the transaction.

"We, at Pine Labs, are constantly striving to develop innovative technology solutions to cater to the requirements of our diverse merchant base and their customers. Paper POS is our latest innovation, and will accelerate the growth of electronic payments acceptance in the country. It will not only be a one-stop solution for acceptance of all payments through UPI and Bharat QR, it will also save transaction cost," said Venkat Paruchuri, Chief Product Officer, Pine Labs.

Paper POS is low-cost, easy to implement and ensures safe payment transactions. It is simple to install and helps merchants to declutter the billing counter as well as contain long customer queues. Paper POS also offers a range of other benefits to the merchants like detailed insights on the transactions as well as reconciliation of all transactions, including Paper POS transactions at one place on myPlutus web (TRM) or on the myPlutus app. The merchants can also receive instant notifications for transactions on the myPlutus app. The Paper POS sticker can also be customized with the merchant name / store name and the merchant logo on the QR sticker.

The steps for accepting payments using Paper POS are simple. To begin with, the customer scans the QR on Pine Labs Paper POS using any UPI / Bharat QR app. The customer will then enter the amount on his app. In the third step, the customer will enter UPI/ Bharat QR credentials on the app to authorise the transaction. Upon successful confirmation, the merchants with Pine Labs POS terminals can print the chargeslip for Paper POS transactions.

About Pine Labs

Pine Labs is one of Asia's leading merchant commerce platforms. Its unique cloud-based platform enables it to offer a wide range of payment acceptance and merchant commerce solutions. Pine Labs' stored value platform offers issuing, processing and distributing digital gift cards for corporate customers. Its customer base includes prominent large, mid-sized and small merchants across India, South East Asia and the Middle East. Pine Labs is incorporated in Singapore. Its key investors are Sequoia India, Actis Capital, Temasek, PayPal, Sofina and Mastercard. To know more, please visit www.pinelabs.com

PayPal, Temasek Invests $125 Mn in Noida-based Payment Startup Pine Labs

Noida-based point-of-sales (PoS) deploying company Pine Labs has raised $125 million from Temasek, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore and PayPal, the largest Us-based digital payments company. Both Paypal and Temasek have acquired minority stakes in Pine Labs.

Sequoia India, which first invested in Pine Labs in 2009, remains the company’s largest shareholder. This round is followed by the round that Pine Labs had announced in March of this year when it raised $82 million from private equity fund Actis and California-based investment company Altimeter Capital. Till date, the company has raised total of $208 milion in four different rounds including this one.

Founded in 1998 by Rajul Garg, Tarun Upaday, Pine Labs offers a cloud-based PoS payments solutions, allowing merchants to accept credit or debit card payments, as well as latest methods such as e-wallets, QR code payment solutions and unified payments interface (UPI)-based solutions.

Pine Labs plans to use the deep network of Temasek in multiple Asian geographies to help Pine Labs scale up operations in the south east Asian region and further with the technological capabilities of PayPal, Pine Labs is looking to strengthen its tech play as well.

Moreover, as Pine Labs is expanding its product suite by building new layers of services for merchants, banks and other communities in the payment ecosystem, PayPal’s global presence and strong product expertise will make the ally with Pine Labs invaluable.

Speaking on the fresh funding, Lokvir Kapoor, founder of Pine Labs, said, "We’re teaming up with Temasek and PayPal at a time when the Indian payments market is at an inflexion point. The investments will help us move a step closer to our vision for building a world-class merchant-centric payments ecosystem."

With $15 billion worth of transactions processed annually, Pine Labs is used by over 65,000 merchants across India’s retail, e-commerce, electronics, food and beverage, fashion, financial, pharmacy, telecom and airlines industries. The company aims to reach 1 million payment acceptance points in India in the next three to five years.

It may be recalled that just yesterday, an another payment startup Tonetag too raised $10 million from Amazon and Mastercard, along with others.

In February, ICICI bank bank had invested ₹99 Lakhs in Mumbai-based Biometric Payment Startup Tapits.

In January, Grab, a Singapore based on-demand firm, acquired Bangalore-based payments startup iKaaz. Ikaaz’ technology stack encompasses a range of innovations, such as NFC, QR-code, audio-based payments as well as bill payments, online payments and P2P.

Meanwhile, A recent study done by Fallible.co, a security firm working towards escalating the security of tech startups has made some shocking revelations. According to the study, many of the popular Indian startups whose services we avail online possess a potential credit card detail theft for the customers.

The above news was first reported in LiveMint.

Arun Sarin (ex CEO, Vodafone PLC) and Vicky Bindra (Visa Global Head) Join Pine Labs’ Board

Pine Labs, a leading provider of payments solutions, today announced board level appointments of Arun Sarin (ex CEO, Vodafone PLC) and Vicky Bindra, Visa Global Head (Commercial Business, Financial Inclusion, Key Accounts & Business Process).

“We are very excited to welcome two Industry stalwarts on our board.” announced Lokvir Kapoor, CEO - Pine Labs. “Their knowledge and experience in building global businesses will be extremely valuable as Pine Labs continues to expand in domestic and international markets”.

Arun Sarin served as the Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Group PLC from 2003 to 2008. He was the driving force behind growing the data and Internet businesses globally. It was under his leadership that Vodafone grew to become a global brand with over 300 million customers and a market capitalization of $150 billion.

Arun Sarin is joining Pine Labs’ board in an advisory position. Commenting on the appointment, he said “Pine Labs has created a unique set of products and services that have seen tremendous traction with the Indian acquirers and merchants. I believe many new opportunities can be opened up by adapting this business model in other markets.”

Vicky Bindra brings a wealth of experience in the payment Industry. Prior to Joining Visa, Vicky was President, Asia Pacific & Global Accounts for MasterCard Worldwide. His experience will be especially useful in helping Pine Labs develop deeper roots in the payments industry.

“Pine Labs has created a killer app in terms of loyalty and instalments at POS in India.  This is of significant value to the merchant, consumer and issuer.  It is now poised to take this internationally and unleash another vector of multiple-year growth”, said Vicky Bindra.

Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors, said “In the seven years since Sequoia first invested, Pine Labs has become a leading payments platform company in India, handling close to 20% of India's retail payment volume and growing rapidly. We are thrilled to welcome Vicky Bindra and Arun Sarin to Pine Labs, and look forward to their strategic help and guidance to help shape India's payments landscape.”

Pine labs is a provider of retail POS (Point of sale) solutions that simplify payment acceptance, while creating business opportunities for Issuers, merchants and brands to connect with consumers. Pine Labs began its journey with specialty payment and loyalty solutions for closed-user group applications for Retail Petroleum industry. Today it has evolved into a payment acceptance partner choice for more than 45,000 retailers, ranging from large worldwide enterprises with a wide network across India to locally-owned small businesses. What makes Pine Labs a market leader today is constant innovation to develop new robust solutions which went beyond payment acceptance and helped retailers to acquire and engage customers at Point of Sale. Pine Labs merchants and partners get a robust platform to create new revenue streams with best in class value added solutions like Instant EMI, Instant Discounts, Cash Back Programs, Pay by Points, Loyalty Solution, Gift Solution, Data analysis based Targeted Promotions, Dynamic Currency Conversion etc.