Pine Labs Launches Dukaan Studio To Modernise Offline Kirana Stores

B2B payments unicorn Pine Labs has launched Dukaan Studio, a new venture to help kirana store owners modernise their stores.

“Presenting Dukaan Studio, a small gift from us to those who get no days off for themselves,” said Pine Labs in a tweet on Monday (February 20).

The initiative would help kirana stores across the country to receive a facelift by offering several customised products such as shopping bags, visiting cards, offer danglers, tent cards, decor lights, stationery and T-shirts.

However, this facility is only available for Pine Labs partners with valid point-of-sale (POS) IDs with the fintech unicorn. It was not immediately clear whether the service would be available free of charge to the kirana stores partnering with Pine Labs.

Kirana store owners can go to Dukaan Studio’s website, select the products they would like to have and enter their delivery details. Then, a Dukaan Studio support executive would reach out to them to finalise the order.

“The millions of Kirana stores spread across the length and breadth of India are the bedrock of India’s thriving retail sector. Dukaan Studio is a Pine Labs initiative to empower this special community of Pine Labs merchants with new-age branding and design assets. This initiative will help these store owners give their stores a complete facelift and attract more customers in a fast-changing retail neighbourhood,” said Jerry Williams, VP and Head of Marketing at Pine Labs.

Dukaan Studio comes at a time when the fintech unicorn saw its net loss rise 4.5% to INR 259.1 Cr from INR 247.8 Cr in FY21. At the same time, the fintech’s revenue from operations went from INR 726.1 Cr in FY21 to INR 1,017 Cr in FY22, a jump of 1.4X.

Founded in 1998 by Lokvir Kapoor and headed by Amrish Rau, Pine Labs offers POS payments in India, Malaysia, and the UAE. It competes with the likes of Razorpay, PayU and Mswipe, among others.

The startup has raised over a billion dollars in funding to date and is backed by marquee investors such as Alpha Wave Ventures, MasterCard, Sequoia Capital, and State Bank of India.

Earlier this year, Pine Labs acquired the proprietary enterprise platform of Bengaluru-based Saluto Wellness to boost its issuing business under the Qwikcilver brand. Last year, it also acquired Bengaluru-based fintech infrastructure startup Setu in a $70 Mn-$75 Mn deal to strengthen its offerings.

Update | February 20, 2023, 7:10 PM

The story has been updated to include Pine Labs’ comments on the matter.