He said the India and Southeast Asia-focused e-payments firm is looking at an IPO with a valuation of around $6 billion, but it could go up further.
the company was
It was valued at $3.5 billion after raising approximately $600 million. Earlier this year in two phases. It is also looking to raise a ‘pre-IPO’ funding round, but those details are yet to be finalised.
“They (Pine Labs) want to raise fresh money before the IPO, but are not calling it pre-IPO as per current talks,” said a person with knowledge of the matter.
Although discussions are in the early stages, Pine Labs may consider raising at least $100 million.
“Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have been authorized to IPO. They are targeting it in the US for next year, but if the process takes longer it could extend to early 2023 as well,” sources said. said.
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The latest development comes at a time when digital payments continue to grow in India, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
consumer-focused fintech startups like
Paytm And
MobiKwik It has also filed its draft prospectus to go public on domestic exchanges later this year.
Amid regulatory hurdles in investing in China, both global and domestic risk-averse investors have flocked to the sector in India.
Late last month, Prosus, formerly known as Naspers, acquired digital payments processor BillDesk in a $4.7 billion all-cash deal.
Pine Labs CEO Amrish Rau and Morgan Stanley did not respond to emails. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
Entrackr reported earlier this week, citing regulatory documents, that the firm’s Singapore-based parent entity had
Converted into a public firm in preparation for its IPO.
In its previous funding round, Pine Labs inducted investors such as Fidelity Management as well as funds such as BlackRock, Ishana, Tree Line, IIFL AMC’s Late-Stage Tech Fund.
Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Actis, PayPal and Mastercard are among its existing investors.
In an earlier interview with ET in July, just in time to close his round,
Rao had indicated that the firm was eyeing a US-listing in the next 18 months. As it has set sights to expand its reach in Indian and South Asian markets like Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Pine Labs primarily specializes in developing software and deployment solutions for Point of Sale (POS) devices for storefronts.
The startup is diversifying its offerings on its newly developed software platform with enterprise solutions like
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Integration, Invoice Management, Payment Gateway as well as Prepaid Card Issuance.
The Noida-based firm, the third most valuable fintech in India after Paytm and PhonePe, is focusing on five areas of growth in FY22 before going public.
The first is to further enhance its software commerce stack that allows merchants to automate payment and billing services at storefronts. Another area of focus is for small merchants to bring their offline technology and payment capabilities to online channels as well. This means that Pine Labs is also building out its own payment gateway services that will allow merchants to digitize their delivery and ledger services as well.
The third focus point is the QR-based solution.
Pine Labs is said to be processing an annual gross transaction value (GTV) of $1 billion through these stickers in both physical and digital form.
The firm is also expanding its presence in South Asian markets through its recent acquisition of Kuala Lumpur-based Fintech Fav.
The fifth focus area for Pine Labs is prepaid card issuance through its wholly owned entity, Quicksilver. The startup is issuing around 8 million prepaid cards through this platform, which focuses on corporate offerings, gift vouchers and refunds.
ET first reported earlier this year that the firm is tying up with Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Amazon, BillDesk and Visa.
Unions Struggling for a New Umbrella Unit (NUE) License from the Reserve Bank of India to set up a pan-India retail payment network.
According to company estimates shared with ET in July, the startup posted a net revenue of Rs 800 crore in FY21.