Pine Labs

Pine Labs Pvt. Ltd.

Industry	Fintech
Founded	1998; 27 years ago (1998)
Founder	Lokvir Kapoor Rajul Garg
Headquarters	Noida, Uttar Pradesh (Corporate Office) Gurgaon, Haryana (Registered Office) , India
Area served	India, Middle East, Southeast Asia
Key people	Lokvir Kapoor (Executive chairman) B.Amrish Rau (CEO)
Products	myPlutus app, Plutus Smart, Pine Labs Genie,[1] Plural
Revenue	₹1,588 crore (US$180 million) (FY23)[2]
Net income	₹−227 crore (US$−26 million) (FY23)[2]
Subsidiaries	Qwikcilver Solutions Pvt Ltd.
Website	pinelabs.com

Pine Labs is an Indian company that provides point of sales systems and payment systems, founded in 1998. The company has a valuation of over US$5 billion.[3]

The company makes Android-based point of sale (PoS) machines[4] and has more than 70,000 retailers across India, including retail outlets such as Spencer's Retail, Pantaloons, Shoppers Stop, and Westside.[5] It also has a presence in other countries, primarily in Asia, such as India, UAE, Singapore and Malaysia.[6] On 21 May 2024 Pine Labs got approval from Singapore Court to dissolve its Singapore branch.[7]

Some of its notable investors include LonePine, PayPal, Temasek Holdings, Actis Capital, Altimeter Capital, Sofina, and Sequoia Capital.

History

The company was founded in 1998.[8] The company evolved from petroleum retail automation to becoming a payments products and services firm for merchants. It has over 100,000 merchants in India and other Asian countries. Pine Labs has sold over 850,000 PoS terminals in India.[9]

In 2004, Pine Labs ventured into mainstream payments and financial offerings for merchants.[10]

The company acquired gifting startup Qwikcilver for $110 million in March 2019.[11][12][13]

In February 2019, the company partnered with RAKBANK to launch a payment platform in the UAE. In March 2018, Google Pay entered into partnership with Pine Labs to capture the offline payments space in India.[14][15] The company partnered with UnionPay in January 2019.[16]

In April 2021, Pine Labs acquired Southeast Asian deals and cash-back platform Fave for $45 million.[17] 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.[18]

In August, 2021 the company suffered a data breach exposing the data of up to 500,000 of its users to hackers, which raised several concerns on its capabilities to protect sensitive customer information.[19]

In January 2022, Pine Labs filed confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to raise about $500 million later that year at a valuation of $5.5 – 7 billion.[20]

In August 2024, it secured approval from the National Company Law Tribunal for its planned merger of its Indian and Singaporean entities.[21]

Funding

In May 2018, Pine Labs raised $125 million (₹843 crores) from Temasek Holdings and PayPal, making it one of the unicorn startup companies with a valuation of over $1 billion.[22][23]

In March 2018, the company raised $82 million (₹530 crores) from Actis Capital, a private equity fund and Altimeter Capital, a California-based investment company.[24] It had also raised funds in 2015 from Sofina and in 2009 from Sequoia Capital.[25][26] As of May 2018, It has raised a total of $208 million.[22]

In May 2019, it was listed among the top 10 highest-funded startups in India by CNBC TV18.[6] In Jan 2020, it announced it had raised an undisclosed sum from Mastercard .[27] 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.[28]

Products and services

The company provides POS devices that allow merchants to accept credit and debit card payments.[29][30][31][32]

See also

• List of unicorn startup companies

References

1. Pine Labs Genie
2. "Pine Labs logs revenue of Rs 1,600 crore, trims losses in FY23". Financial Express. 30 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
3. Upadhaya, Harsh (18 February 2022). "Pine Labs raises $150 Mn from Alpha Wave at $5 Bn valuation". entrackr.com.
4. https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/pine-labs-plans-to-deploy-1-5-lakh-android-pos-devices-by-next-fiscal-11582462971021.html
5. Gooptu, Biswarup; Bhakta, Pratik (28 August 2017). "Season may be right for Sequoia to exit Pine Labs". The Economic Times.
6. "Here are the top 10 highest-funded startups in India". CNBC TV18. 29 May 2019.
7. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/money-and-banking/pine-labs-receives-singapore-court-nod-to-shift-base-to-india/article68196746.ece
8. "Indian fintech firm Pine Labs confidentially files for U.S. IPO". The Hindu. 10 January 2022. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
9. Abrar, Peerzada; Mishra, Bibhu Ranjan (12 June 2019). "Pine Labs gears up for next phase of growth, plans to foray into new mkts". Business Standard.
10. Tyagi, Gaurav (30 July 2019). "Pine Labs secures Rs 707 Cr from Singapore-based parent company". Entrackr. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
11. Bhakta, Pratik (20 March 2019). "Pine Labs acquires gifting startup Qwikcilver". The Economic Times.
12. "Why Pine Labs is acquiring Qwikcilver". The Economic Times. 26 February 2019.
13. Arakali, Harichandan (19 March 2019). "Singapore's Pine Labs acquires gift card tech company Qwikcilver in $110 million deal". Forbes India.
14. Soni, Yatti (28 March 2018). "Google Pay Partners With Pine Labs To Capture Offline Payments Space In India". Inc42.com.
15. "Google Pay looks beyond UPI, card payments in the works". The Economic Times. 10 May 2019.
16. "UnionPay acceptance coverage in India continues to increase". Unionpayintl. 10 January 2019.
17. "Pine Labs has just bought Fave for $45 million". Entrepreneurship News, Community, and Resources | BEAMSTART. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
18. "Pine Labs acquires Southeast Asian startup Fave for $45 million". TechCrunch. 13 April 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
19. Ghosh, Debangana (17 August 2021). "Data breach at Pine Labs exposes 500,000 records". thehindubusinessline.com.
20. "Fintech startup Pine Labs to seek $500 million in US IPO". The Economic Times. 10 January 2022.
21. Singh, Charu (19 August 2024). "Pine Labs Gets NCLT Green Light For Merger Of Its Indian And Singaporean Entities". NDTV Profit. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
22. Russel, John (31 May 2018). "PayPal and Singapore's Temasek invest $125M in Indian payment startup Pine Labs". TechCrunch.
23. "India's Pine Labs Racks Up $125 Million". The Wall Street Journal. 31 May 2018.
24. Bhakta, Pratik (13 March 2018). "Actis, Altimeter put $82 million in Pine Labs to grow roots". The Economic Times.
25. Alexander, George Smith (13 March 2015). "Sequoia's Pine Labs Said to Seek Funding at $1 Billion Valuation". Bloomberg News.
26. "Striking gold: A look at India's growing club of Unicorns". The Economic Times. 29 June 2018.
27. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
28. Manikandan, Ashwin. "Pine Labs gets funding at $3.5-billion valuation ahead of US IPO". The Economic Times. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
29. "Pine Labs brings digital payment innovations to the MENA Region". Dubai: Saudi Gazette. 18 March 2018.
30. "Pine Labs revenues grow 55% to ₹302 crore, while slipping into loss, in FY18". Theindianwire.com. 31 October 2018.
31. Shaikh, Shadma (19 November 2015). "Use reward points, don't lose them". Asian Age.
32. Gupta, Soumya (7 February 2017). "'Soon To Be Unicorns' : India's Top 40+". BusinessWorld.

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