On Tuesday, Digital payments provider Pine Labs has raised another $315 million in fresh capital as a part of its on-going fundraise, and closed its current round at $600 million, and the company has plans to go public till 2022.
The investor trail and Pine Labs success
With the fresh raise, a slew of public market investors, including Fidelity Management & Research Company, BlackRock, Ishana, Tree Line, advised by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC, along with IIFL AMC via its ‘Late-Stage Tech Fund’ and Kotak have joined the company’s growing cap table. With the current close, the valuation of the startup stands at $3 billion.
The funding comes a month after the company announced that it had raised $285 million in primary and secondary equity sale, from public market investors, including Baron Capital Group, Duro Capital, Marshall Wace, Moore Strategic Ventures and Ward Ferry Management.
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Company’s future plans
With this fund raise; the company is looking to list in the US markets in the next 18 months. B. Amrish Rau, chief executive officer, Pine Labs had said the company’s ambition is to be the first Indian fintech to list in offshore markets.
Rau said that-
“Over the last year, Pine Labs has made significant progress in its offline to online strategy in India and the direct-to-consumer play in Southeast Asia. Our full-stack approach to payments and merchant commerce has allowed us to grow in-month merchant partnerships by nearly 100% over the last year. We are excited to bring on board a marquee set of new investors in this round and appreciate the confidence they have placed on the Pine Labs business model and our growth momentum.”
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Pine Labs plans to be international, not just India-centric
Rau had earlier said that-
“Pine Labs wants to become the first Indian fintech to list offshore, with the right unit economics and Ebitda profile, while recording 50-60% revenue growth year-on-year. We don’t want Pine Labs to be an India-centric story alone.”
Pine Labs listing internationally will not only be a good story for the global markets, but will also augur well for the larger fintech ecosystem back in India.
The company is planning an additional fund raise by the end of 2021, as it looks to expand into new geographies of the Middle East by early next year to get more exposure.
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Fave acquisition’s effect on Pine Labs
The company, which announced the acquisition of loyalty startup Fave in April, this year, continues to scout for new acquisitions for its merchant business.
The Fave acquisition allowed Pine Labs to enter the consumer payments segment, as it looks to offer Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based payments and cash back to Indian customers. Through Fave, Pine Labs is also strengthening its play in the South-east Asian markets.
Shailendra Singh, managing director, Sequoia Capital said that-
“Pine Labs now serves hundreds of thousands of merchants across payments acceptance on cards and UPI processing tens of billions of payment volume; the company also has the PayLater offering with $3 billion in annualized PayLater transactions. Through its acquisitions of QwikCilver and Fave, Pine Labs now has the market leading pre-paid platform in this region as well as the top consumer loyalty product in this market. With leadership across multiple categories, the company is very well positioned to help drive immense value to its merchant partners.”
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Present situation of Pine Labs
At present, Pine Labs offers a range of customized offerings for in-store and doorstep payments, ‘Pay Later’ at the time of sale, prepaid issuance and online payments to large, mid-market and small retailers. It powers close to 1 billion online transactions every month and this number will grow to almost 10 billion in 12 months.
