- Pine labs raised a new round of funding from Mastercard. While the amount was not disclosed but the funding is somewhere between $100-150 million.
- With this funding, Pine Labs becomes the first unicorn in 2020.
- Last year in February the company partnered with RAKBANK to launch a payment platform in the UAE.
- In March 2018, Google Pay went into partnership with Pine Labs to capture the offline payment space in India.
Point-of-sale (PoS) service provider Pine Labs started in 1998 and in 21 years, the PoS service platform is now the first unicorn in India in 2020.
The company evolved from a petroleum automation retail solutions player to becoming a payment products and services firm for merchants. It has over 100,000 merchants in India and other Asian countries. Pine Labs platform powers over 350,000 PoS terminals in India.
While the funding amount is not yet disclosed, the valuation of Pine Labs now stands at $1.5-1.6 billion. Our 1st unicorn of India in 2020 will work with Mastercard to deliver a range of card and real-time payments-based installment financing at checkout. Funding will also help in the company in their lending business with debit/credit card-based financing options.
Pine Labs has around 1.4 lakh merchants across 4.5 lakh network points. It offers loans on working capital and the company has set up Pine Labs Finance last year. The company claims to have done $30 billion in payment processes in one year.
Sequoia Capital India invested in Pine Labs some 11 years ago now owns a majority stake in the company. Before this round, the point-of-sales company raised more than $200 million from PayPal besides other investors like Temasek, Actis & Altimeter Capital.
More than INR 784 crores were spent to acquire Qwikcliver last year. “Together, we have a unique opportunity to use Mastercard’s global presence & technology infrastructure to enhance our growth and enable us to meet the growing needs of growing customers in India & beyond” – Lokvir Kapoor, Chairman & founder of Pine Labs.
Conclusion:
India witnessed 31 unicorns last year and before 1st month of a new year gets over; we have Pine Labs our 1st unicorn in India in 2020. With their high hopes to utilize funds in business expansion and operational excellence, we wish all the best to Pine Labs.
Mastercard will help a lot in achieving what Pine Labs is aiming for and both the companies will experience a win-win situation.
