Pine Labs backs Malaysian mobile payments platform Fave

Digital payments and merchant commerce platform Pine Labs has announced an undisclosed amount of investment in Kuala Lumpur headquartered fintech platform Fave, along with a strategic partnership.

As part of the partnership, Fave’s QR code-based mobile payments and loyalty programme will be integrated with Pine Labs terminals in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, where the former has a presence, as per a statement. Pine Labs will also provide its merchants access to the Favebiz dashboard for payment reconciliation, customer insights and demographic data, it added.

“With digitalisation playing an increasingly critical role in the recovery of southeast Asia’s economy, merchants recognise that they need to accelerate the development of digital solutions to ensure they remain competitive. We will work with Pine Labs to further strengthen Fave’s mission of helping merchants adapt to and digitalise in the new normal,” Joel Noah, CEO of Fave, said in the statement.

The Malaysian firm raised $20 million in a Series B funding round in 2018 from Sequoia Capital India, SIG Asia Investments and Venturra Capital, followed by a debt funding round in 2019 from Innoven Capital.

On the other hand, Pine Labs, which claims to process payments of $30 billion per year on its network, acquired Bengaluru-based gift card solutions provider QwikCilver for $110 million in 2019.

It was founded in 1998 by Rajul Garg, who left the company in 2003. He was replaced by Vicky Bindra as CEO, who in March moved on to an advisory role, paving the way for former PayU executive Amrish Rau. Sequoia Capital, an early investor in Pine Labs, is the largest shareholder in the Singapore headquartered company, which last raised an undisclosed amount in equity capital in January from payments solutions company Mastercard, reportedly valuing it at over $1 billion.

“We’re excited to invest in Fave and partner with their leadership to provide integrated merchant commerce in Southeast Asia,” CEO Rau said. The company has 150,000 merchants on its platform with 450,000 network touch points across Asia.

Other investors in Pine Labs include Singapore state investment firm Temasek and payments company PayPal Holdings, which invested $125 million in the startup in May. The firm has also raised $82 million from private equity firm Actis Capital.