India's Pine Labs raises $315m at $3.5b valuation
Indian financial technology provider Pine Labs has raised a $315 million round featuring BlackRock at a post-money valuation of about $3.5 billion.
Neuberger Berman, IIFL Asset Management, and Tree Line Capital Partners also participated. Pine Labs listed Kotak and Ishana as additional investors in the round without further specifying the organizations. Kotak Mahindra Bank partnered with Pine Labs in late 2019 as part of a debit card product rollout.
Pine Labs CEO Amrish Rau, confirmed the valuation to The Economic Times, adding that his company would seek a US IPO in the next 18 months amid a South and Southeast Asia expansion. This activity would leverage a pandemic-driven boost that saw merchant adoption of Pine Labs’ payments technology increase nearly 100% during 2020.
It comes about two months after a $285 million investment led by Baron Capital Group, Duro Capital, Marshall Wace, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Ward Ferry Management. The overall round – sometimes referred to as a Series D – has now closed at $600 million.
Total funding to date comes to more than $1.2 billion, with previous investors also including Temasek Holdings, Sequoia Capital India, Actis Capital, Lone Pine Capital, Sunley House Capital, Altimeter Capital, Madison India Capital, PayPal, and Mastercard.
Pine Labs offers a cloud-based platform that allows merchants dependent on traditional point-of-sale terminals to accept payments via online wallets, QR codes, and electronic gift cards, as well as credit and debit cards. It has been EBITDA positive for several years, according to a statement.
Recent expansions include moves into deferred payment services and prepaid gift cards. The company’s PayLater offering is said to be on track to facilitate $3 billion in annual transactions. Meanwhile, Shailendra Singh, a managing director at Sequoia, has described Pine Labs as a leading prepaid platform and consumer loyalty player in the region.
Entry into new business lines and geographic markets has largely been driven by M&A. In 2019, Pine Labs acquired Indian gift card technology provider Qwikcilver, which operates in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, for $110 million. Last year, Pine Labs acquired Malaysian counterpart Fave – also an investee of Sequoia India – for $45 million.
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