Market-bound Pine Labs secures $600 mn from BlackRock, others

Mastercard backed payments unicorn Pine Labs, which is expected to launch an IPO in 2022, has secured $600 million (Rs 445.9 crore) in a round led by Fidelity Management and Research Company and new investor BlackRock.

Other participants in the round included Ishana, Tree Line, and a fund advised by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC. IIFL AMC, via its Late-Stage Tech Fund, and Kotak Funds also chipped in.

“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,” B Amrish Rau, CEO of Pine Labs, said in a statement on Tuesday.

New Delhi based Pine Labs, which provides merchant payment terminals and invoicing tools among other SaaS solutions, says it continues to be well-financed and has been Ebitda positive for several years.  In April, it paid $45 million (Rs 337 crore) to buy Kuala Lumpur headquartered fintech platform Fave in a bid to expand in the Southeast Asian market.

In May, the company raised $285 million in funding from a clutch of reputed public market-focused cross-over funds, bringing its valuation to around $3 billion.

Pine Labs previously acquired QwikCilver in 2019 for which it raised capital from Actis Advisors.    

Founded in 1998 by Rajul Garg, Pine Labs started out as a point-of-sale (PoS) provider. Garg quit the company in 2003, which led to Lokvir Kapoor taking over the company. Amrish Rau, co-founder of payments company Citrus Pay (acquired by PayU in 2016), joined as CEO last year.

Pine Labs, through changes in its business model over the years and strategic acquisitions such as Fave, is eyeing a larger piece of the fintech pie in SEA. The Fave acquisition has helped it add QR code-based payments as well as customer insight and payment reconciliation software.

The company is backed by Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, Actis, PayPal and Mastercard among other global investors.