Pine Labs Raises $82 Million At Just Under $1 Billion Valuation
This payments startup is next in line to become a unicorn.
Digital retail payments platform Pine Labs has raised $82 million in a fresh round of funding led by Actis Capital and new investor Altimeter Capital, its Chief Executive Lokvir Kapoor told BloombergQuint over phone.
The investment values the company at close to $1 billion, two people privy to the development said requesting anonymity as the details of the deal have not been made public. Kapoor declined to comment on the company’s valuation. Venture capital fund Sequoia Capital, which is the largest shareholder in the company, did not participate in the this round, he added.
India’s digital payments markets is crowded with everyone from the government’s BHIM app and Paytm to Google’s Tez and WhatsApp trying to ride the wave after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to scrap old high-value notes encouraged cashless payments.
Pine Labs, which offers cloud-based point-of-sale payments platform to the merchants, said the funds will be used to expand in the country and launch new products and services for merchants. Part of the investment will fuel its overseas expansion plans, Kapoor added. Pine Labs has already present in Malaysia and is looking to expand further into markets such as UAE, Qatar, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.
The company’s platform allows merchants to accept traditional electronic payment methods such as credit or debit cards issued by banks, e-wallets, QR code payment solutions or other UPI based solutions, on a single platform.
At present, it processes 450 million transactions worth more than $15 billion on an annualised basis, according to its media statement. It has deployed 300,000 payment acceptance terminals so far and is targeting 1 million PoS in three to four years, Kapoor said.
Pine Labs, which competes with Mswipe and Ezetap, looks to clock in Rs 300-400 crore of revenue by the end of this financial year.