Homegrown payments solution provider, Pine Labs, which is preparing for its initial public offering (IPO), on Monday said it has raised $285 million in primary and secondary equity sale, from public market investors, including Baron Capital Group, Duro Capital, Marshall Wace, Moore Strategic Ventures and Ward Ferry Management.
Existing investors Temasek, Lone Pine Capital and Sunley House Capital also participated in this funding round.
The capital raised from the round has also enabled secondary transactions and cash liquidity for founder, employees and early shareholders, the company said.
“We’re thrilled to welcome marquee investors such as Marshall Wace, Baron Capital Group, Ward Ferry Management, Duro Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures to the already pristine cap table of Pine Labs. This is an exciting phase in our journey as we enter newer markets. We excel in enterprise merchant payments and now want to scale new frontiers in the online space as well, at the same time continue to power the credit and commerce needs of our offline merchant partners,” said Amrish Rau, chief executive officer, Pine Labs.
The current fundraise is expected to value the company at about $3 billion, as the company looks to go public in the first half of 2022, one of the individuals aware of the discussions told Mint.
The company has almost tripled its valuation, since January last year, when it was valued at $1.4 billion, after it raised an undisclosed amount from New York-based financial services major Mastercard.
“We are very excited to be a part of the technological transformation that Pine Labs is driving on the ground in payments and the multiple interlinkages and efficiencies it is able to create by providing faster, cost-effective consumer access to a broader range of financial products such as BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later), where it is driving a pioneering effort on behalf of the financial system,” said Amit Rajpal, chief executive officer and portfolio manager of Marshall Wace Asia.
The round comes just four months after Pine Labs raised close to $100 million from Lone Pine Capital as part of secondary and primary share sale. This investment round pushed the company’s valuation to $2 billion.
“Pine Labs has rapidly transformed from a single product company offering retail acceptance of payments to a broader payments platform. The company now serves hundreds of thousands of merchants for payments through cards and UPI, processing tens of billions of payment volume. With leadership across multiple categories, the company is very well positioned to drive immense value to its merchant partners in India and other SEA markets.,” said Shailendra Singh, managing director, Sequoia Capital.
Currently, Pine Labs claims to have more than 150,000 merchants across Asia and the Middle East. The company claims that its Pay Later product sees $3 billion in annualized equated monthly instalment (EMI) transactions.
It recently launched its popular Buy Now, Pay Later proposition in Malaysia and plans to take its integrated Pay Later instalment solution to newer markets in Southeast Asia.
In April 2021, Pine Labs also announced the acquisition of Fave, for $45 million, as the company looks to now offer consumer payments to users in India and Southeast Asia.
