Pine Labs Raises $50 Mn From Vitruvian Partners At $5 Bn Valuation

Fintech unicorn Pine Labs has closed a recent funding round worth $50 Mn, raising money from PE company Vitruvian Partners at a valuation of slightly more than $5 Bn.

According to the ET report, the funding round also includes a $15 Mn ESOP buyback before its planned IPO in the US.

Pine Labs raised $150 Mn from Alpha Wave Ventures last month, at a little over $5 Bn valuation. Pine Labs’s CEO Amrish Rau confirmed the development to Inc42 back then.

“We can confirm that Alpha Wave Venture has invested $150 Mn in Pine Labs. We are happy to bring a marquee investor on board. Our omnichannel strategy is showing strong revenue growth. We are also seeing strong growth in international markets,” Rau told Inc42.

The last round seemed to be a Pre-IPO round of the 22-year-old fintech giant which is gearing for a NASDAQ listing this year. The most recent fundraising also looks like a continuation of the same round.

When contacted, Pine Labs said it will update us on the matter shortly.

Founded in 1998 by Lokvir Kapoor, the startup entered the coveted unicorn club in 2020 after closing a deal with US multinational financial services corporation Mastercard. 

The Noida-based startup enables large and mid-sized businesses in Asia and the Middle East to accept digital payments. It offers merchant commerce solutions including enterprise automation systems such as customer relationships and inventory management. 

It claims its cloud-based platform helps 140,000 merchants, 3.5 Lakh PoS (point of sale) terminals across 3,700 cities and towns in India and Malaysia. More than 15 major banks, seven financial institutions and more than 100 brands are a part of Pine Lab’s platform that processes payments worth $30 Bn every year.

Pine Labs, which is reportedly eying a $1 Bn IPO enjoys the support of marquee investors such as Sequoia India, Singapore’s Temasek, PayPal, Actis Capital, among others.

Vitruvian Partners had participated in edtech major Byju’s $800 Mn funding earlier this month.

Pine Labs has been actively raising funds since last year. The fintech unicorn in 2021 raised a total of $700 Mn in funding in two tranches. In July last year, it raised $600 Mn from its new investors Fidelity Management & Research Company, BlackRock, Ishana, and Tree Line among others.

In September, Pine Labs got $100 Mn from US-based investment management company Invesco at a valuation of $6 Bn.

It also acquired Mumbai-based Qfix Infocomm, an online payments startup, last month. While Pine Labs has not disclosed the terms of the deal, the acquisition is aimed to aid the unicorn’s recently launched Plural platform.

Pine Labs has also partnered with neobanking fintech startup Jupiter to launch White Venture Capital, onboarding Pine Labs CEO Amrish Rau, Jupiter’s Jitendra Gupta and managed by angel investor Sweta Rau.

Jitendra Gupta and Amrish Rau will be the VC firm’s limited partners and advisors, while Sweta Rau will be the sole portfolio manager. The trio has put in $15 Mn from their personal funds.