Pine Labs is an Indian company that provides financing and last-mile retail transaction technology. It was founded in 1998. It is one of the unicorn companies, with a valuation of over US$5 billion. It provides a merchant platform and makes software for

point of sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...

(PoS) machines. The company has more than 70,000 retailers across India, including major retail outlets such as

Mark's Mark's (known as L'Équipeur in Quebec) is a Canadian clothing and footwear retailer specializing in casual and industrial wear. Beginning in 1977 as Mark's Work Wearhouse in Calgary, Alberta, it evolved from an industrial accessories dealer ...

and Spencer's Retail,

Pantaloons Pantaloon (from Italian Pantalone), is a traditional greedy merchant character in 16th-century Italian Commedia dell'arte. Pantaloon or Pantaloons may also refer to: Theatre * Pantaloon, a character in the ''Harlequinade'' ** Pantaloons, a style ...

, Shoppers Stop and Westside. It has a presence in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

and other parts of Asia. In January 2022, Pine Labs filed confidentially for an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

(IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to raise about $500 million later this year, giving it a valuation of $5.57 billion. Some of its investors include LonePine,

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

Temasek Temasek (also spelt Temasik) is an early recorded name of a settlement on the site of modern Singapore. The name appears in early Malay and Javanese literature, and it is also recorded in Yuan and Ming Chinese documents as ''Danmaxi'' ( or ...

Actis Capital Actis is a global investment firm focused on the private equity, energy, infrastructure, and real estate asset classes. Actis is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), an investor initiative developed ...

, Altimeter Capital, Sofina and

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. , Sequoia's total ...

History

The company was founded in 1998. The company evolved from a petroleum automation retail solutions player to becoming a payments products and services firm for merchants. It has over 100,000 merchants in India and other Asian countries. Pine Labs platform powers over 850,000 PoS terminals in India. In 2004, Pine Labs ventured into mainstream payments and financial offerings for merchants. The company acquired a gifting startup Qwikcilver for $110 million in March 2019. In February 2019, the company partnered with RAKBANK to launch a payment platform in the UAE. In March 2018, Google Pay came into partnership with Pine Labs to capture the offline payments space in India. The company was partnered with

UnionPay UnionPay (), also known as China UnionPay () or by its abbreviation, CUP or UPI internationally, is a Chinese state-owned financial services corporation headquartered in Shanghai, China. It provides bank card services and a major card sc ...

in January 2019. In April 2021, Pine Labs acquired

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

n deals and cash-back platform Fave for $45 million. Fave's co-founders Joel Neoh, Yeoh Chen Chow, and Arzumy MD will continue working in the company to expand its presence across Southeast Asia and India. In August, 2021 the company suffered a data breach exposing the data of upto 500,000 of its users to hackers.

Financial and Funding

Funding

In May 2018, Pine Labs raised $125 million ( ₹843 crores) from

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...

and

, making it one of the unicorn startup companies with a valuation of over $1 billion. In March 2018, the company raised $82 million (₹530 crores) from

, a

private equity fund A private equity fund (abbreviated as PE fund) is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity (and to a lesser extent debt) securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity ...

and Altimeter Capital, a

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

-based

investment company An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under t ...

. It had also raised funds in 2015 from Sofina and in 2009 from

. As of May 2018, It has raised a total of $208 million. In May 2019, it was listed among the top 10 highest-funded startups in India by

CNBC TV18 CNBC TV18 is an Indian pay television business and financial news channel owned by NBCUniversal and TV18. CNBC TV18 Prime HD Having launched on 26 October 2011, this is CNBC TV18's premium service and the first business channel in India ...

. In Jan 2020, it announced it had raised an undisclosed sum from Mastercard . In December 2020, it raised US$75-$100 million led by US based billionaire Stephen Mandel's hedge fund Lone Pine Capital. After this funding Pine Labs valuation increased to more than US$2 billion. In July 2021, it raised $325 million at a valuation of $3.5 billion from Fidelity and

Blackrock BlackRock, Inc. is an American multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with trill ...

Financial

Products and services

The company provides mobile point of sale (PoS) solutions that allow merchants to accept credit and debit card payments. Some of the offerings of Pine Labs include Instant EMI, Instant Discounts, Cashback Programs, PaybyPoints, Loyalty Solutions, eWallet, Targeted Promotions, Dynamic Currency Conversion and Gift Solution.

References

List of Top 10 Fintech Companies In India 2022-23
by CEO Review Magazine

External links

Official website
{{FinTech in India Companies based in Noida Companies established in 1998 Technology companies of India Indian companies established in 1998 Payment service providers Privately held companies of India Online payments Mobile payments in India 1998 establishments in Uttar Pradesh Cybercrime in India