Nitish Asthana joins Pine Labs as president and chief operating officer

Digital payments and merchant commerce platform Pine Labs has appointed Nitish Asthana as its president and chief operating officer (COO). 

In his new role, Asthana will focus on accelerating Pine Lab’s efforts towards technology innovation and increasing digital payment acceptance among merchants across India and Southeast Asia, according to a statement.

Asthana has over two decades of experience in senior executive roles across payments, fintech, and finance areas. Prior to the current role, he served as the managing director for India and Sri Lanka at First Data Corp, Fiserv. 

Read: Amrish Rau joins Sequoia-backed Pine Labs as CEO

He has also served as director for bancassurance, partnerships and group for Metlife India. He has worked with companies such as Bharti Axa Life, Aviva India, Citibank India, and Standard Chartered Bank.

“I am very excited to join Pine Labs at a time when the company is witnessing tremendous growth in India and beginning to expand its footprint to newer markets, especially in Southeast Asia. With a spike in digital payments adoption post-Covid-19, the environment is right to take innovative fintech products to the remotest corners of the country and accelerate the digital India vision,” Asthana said.

Asthana holds a B.com from Shri Ram College of Commerce, and a PGDM in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.

Founded in 1998 by Lokvir Kapoor, Rajul Garg, Tarun Upaday, Pine Labs claims to serve over 1,50,000 merchants in 3,700 cities with over 4,50,000 merchant touchpoints.

Last week, it invested in Fave, a fintech company in Southeast Asia. Pine Labs is also in talks to buy Asia ops of German firm Wirecard.