India's Pine Labs acquires VC-backed Qwikcilver for $110m

Qwikcilver, founded in 2006, provides stored value card solutions, including gift and prepaid cards, for online and offline retailers, travel and hospitality businesses, and food and beverage brands. The company claims its technology powers 90% of all Indian gift cards, while annualized gross transaction value across India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia is $1.5 billion.

Pine Labs plans to integrate Qwikcilver into its own gift solutions business, Pine Perks, which it launched four years ago. The combined business will be India’s largest gift solutions provider, with a customer base including over 250 brands and retailers.

"We see excellent complementary strengths between the Pine Labs and Qwikcilver gift businesses. While Pine Labs has a strong merchant network, Qwikcilver has market-leading processing and distribution capability. We are confident that both teams' deep domain experience will accelerate our vision of building a world-class merchant-centric ecosystem,” said Pine Labs CEO Vicky Bindra in a statement.

Pine Labs will fund the acquisition with its cash reserves, as well as capital raised from existing investors. The company’s backers include Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and PayPal, which invested $125 million last year, along with Actis Capital, Sequoia Capital India, and Madison India Capital.

Sistema, Accel, Helion, and Amazon all participated in a funding round for Qwikcilver in 2016 reportedly worth about $10 million. Amazon led another $10 million round for the company in 2014, and is also one of its customers.

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• Topics
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• Accel Partners
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