Payments startup Pine Labs has acquired Amazon-backed Qwikcilver, a gift card technology startup for $110 million, it said in a statement Tuesday.
Qwikcilver, founded in 2006, is a gift card service provider and offers a software-based model and has a number of clients for its corporate gifting and gift cards programme including Oberoi Hotels, Amazon, Flipkart and Big Bazaar. Its investors include Amazon, Sistema Asia Fund, and venture capital funds Accel India and Helion Venture Partners.
“At Pine Labs, our primary focus is to bring value to our merchants and their customers. According to market estimates, gift, as a category, is growing at a high double-digit rate annually. Qwikcilver’s technology and market expertise will help us scale up this business and we are delighted to welcome it into Pine Labs,” said Vicky Bindra, Chief Executive Officer, Pine Labs.
Pine Labs also has its own gifting business since 2015- Pine Perks which it claims is used by 600 organizations across banking, insurance, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, FMCG and telecom industries currently.
Kumar Sudarsan, co-founder and chief executive at Qwikcilver said, “We have built a robust and versatile stored value and gift card technology platform. We have also built a strong network and enduring strategic brand relationships with the best brands in India, in the Middle East and in the South East Asian markets.”
“With Pine Labs, we have the potential and ability to significantly scale the gift card category and drive consumer adoption with novel products and solutions,” he added
Founded in 1998, Pine Labs offers cloud-based point-of-sale payments solutions that allow merchants to accept credit and debit card payments besides transactions using e-wallets, QR codes and the unified payments interface (UPI).
Mint reported on February 15 that Pine Labs is in talks to raise about $75 million from its existing investors, including Temasek and PayPal, at a valuation of $1.2-$1.4 billion. This would make it the latest entrant to India’s coveted unicorn club of startups- valued at a billion dollars or more.
The company raised $125 million from Temasek and PayPal last May. Prior to that, Pine Labs had raised $82 million from private equity fund Actis and California-based investment company Altimeter Capital.
Source: Mint