Pine Labs raises $82M led by Actis, will grow penetration in foreign markets

Pine Labs, which is in talks with banks to launch the platform in multiple countries,  plans to expand to the Philippines, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka over the next three quarters.

Point of Sale and digital retail payments provider Pine Labs on Tuesday announced that they had raised a funding of $82 million in a round led by Actis Capital and new investor Altimeter Capital. This investment will be used by the company to accelerate the company’s penetration into the home market as well as for its expansion outside India.

The company is in talks with banks to launch the platform in multiple countries.

Founded in 1998, the company at present claims to process close to 450 million transactions worth over $15 billion on an annualised basis. 

In April last year, it was reported that Sequoia Capital had concluded a $180 million secondary stake sale in its portfolio companies to Madison Capital. One of those was portfolio companies included Pine Labs.

As a part of this investment, Lokvir Kapoor, CEO of Pine Labs, said,

“We are pleased to welcome Actis as our partner for the next phase of our journey. This investment is a strong endorsement of the value of the merchant-first payments platform that we have built – and the tremendous value Pine Labs brings to the platform’s other participants, including shoppers, banks and brands.”

However, Pine Labs is not the only Point-of-Sale and retail payments provider which is looking towards international expansion.

In an interaction with YourStory, Rajesh Prasad who spearheads retail payment provider Innoviti’s international business strategy, said in four years 50 percent of their revenues will come from foreign markets.

The company had already announced plans of expanding to the Philippines, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka over the next three quarters.

In December last year, PoS merchant acquirer MSwipe announced the closing of their Series D round of above $40 million led by Facebook Co-founder, Eduardo Saverin’s investment fund B Capital along with existing investors, DCG Consumer Partners.

Iin August last year, payments service provider Ezetap had raised $16 million as apart for their Series D round. The company had announced that while looking to grow its sales and operations across India and abroad. In Q4 2017, even Pine Labs entered Malaysia with an exclusive partnership with one of their leading banks. The company, which is in talks with over a dozen international banks, now aims to expand to other new markets across Asia and the Middle East.

Speaking on the occasion, Asanka Rodrigo, Partner and Head of South Asia at Actis, said:

“We are thrilled to become a key investor in Pine Labs and partner with Lokvir Kapoor and Sequoia Capital India who together have built a tremendous business in India. Actis has invested in payments businesses across the growth markets operating in more than 50 countries, from Brazil to Malaysia, helping to build the financial infrastructure of the future. We are keenly looking forward to working closely with the team at Pine Labs over the coming years."

Shailendra Singh, Managing Director at Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore, added,

“Pine Labs is a special investment for Sequoia Capital India, because it is a story of incredible grit, first-principles innovation and company building by Lokvir and the management team that spans more than a decade.”

Pine Labs also integrates with 12 credit and debit card issuing Indian banks, and the top 14 merchant-acquirers, on its payment platform. The payments provider has facilitated more than US$1 billion in consumer credit on an annualised basis.

According to the company over 75,000 merchants across India’s retail, e-commerce, electronics, food and beverage, fashion, financial, pharmacy, telecom and airlines industries are now using Pine Labs. Currently, Pine Labs claims that its solution is deployed at approximately 300,000 payment acceptance terminals.

With this funding, the company aims to reach 1 million payment acceptance points in India in the next three to five years.

The company also launched a cloud-based software that can be integrated with a generic point of sale terminal, allowing merchants to accept traditional electronic payment methods such as credit or debit card issued by any bank, as well as new generation methods such as e-wallets, QR code payment solutions or other UPI based solutions, on a single platform.

The latest products in Pine Labs’ portfolio include electronic gift cards, and a pay-by-points product that spans major card loyalty programs. Pine Labs has also partnered with NBFCs to rapidly scale up the merchant lending business.