Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs on Tuesday said it has raised funding from new investors, Fidelity Management & Research Company, funds managed by BlackRock and others, taking the funds raised in this round to USD 600 million. Ishana, Tree Line and a fund advised by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC also participated in the round.

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IIFL AMC via its 'Late-Stage Tech Fund' and Kotak are also participating in the investment round, which is subject to approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), a statement said. This brings the total round size to over USD 600 million (about Rs 4,456 crore), it added. In May, Pine Labs had announced a USD 285 million funding from investors, including Baron Capital Group, Duro Capital, Marshall Wace, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Ward Ferry Management.

While Pine Labs had not disclosed the valuation, reports pegged it at about USD 3 billion. The company had said it may raise additional funds in the coming weeks as it continued to receive investor interest.

On Tuesday, Pine Labs said it continues to be well-financed and has been EBITDA profitable for several years. The company is backed by Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, Actis, PayPal and Mastercard, among other leading global investors. Over the last year, Pine Labs has made significant progress in its offline to online strategy in India and the direct-to-consumer play in Southeast Asia and its full-stack approach to payments and merchant commerce has allowed it to grow in-month merchant partnerships by nearly 100 percent over the last year, Pine Labs CEO B Amrish Rau said.

"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, he added.

Pine Labs offers a range of solutions for online, in-store and doorstep payments and Pay Later at the point of sale among others. It has also bolstered its investment on the consumer side of the business with the acquisition of Fave in April 2021. Over 6 million consumers across over 40,000 merchant establishments now have access to the Fave app.

Pine Labs has rapidly transformed from a single product company, allowing retail acceptance of payments to a broader payments platform...the company also has the market-leading PayLater offering with about USD 3 billion in annualised PayLater transactions," Shailendra Singh, MD of Sequoia Capital, said.

Through its acquisitions of QwikCilver and Fave, Pine Labs now has the market-leading pre-paid platform in this region as well as the top consumer loyalty product in this market, he added. "With leadership across multiple categories, the company is very well positioned to help drive immense value to its merchant partners in India and across other SEA markets, Singh said.

First Published:Jul 6, 2021 11:26 AM IST