Pine  Labs  may file for nearly $1 bn Nasdaq IPO by  Oct -end

By Deborshi Chaki

  • 11 Oct 2021
Credit: VCCircle

Pine Labs, which is aiming for a $6 billion Nasdaq listing, is likely to file paperwork for its initial public offering (IPO) by the end of this month, two people directly aware of the company’s plan said.

The merchant commerce platform hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to manage the proposed initial share sale and is looking to raise as much as $1 billion through a mix of primary and secondary stake sales, the people cited above said, requesting anonymity.

In September, Pine Labs raised $100 million from Invesco Developing Markets Fund, valuing the payments company at around $3 billion.

Pine Labs is backed by PayPal, Sequoia Capital India, Temasek and Mastercard, and offers a host of services to merchants that include payments terminals, invoicing tools and working capital.

“The company is currently expanding in several Asian markets," one of the two people said. “Its investors and founders feel that a Nasdaq listing will be commensurate with its global aspirations and rapid growth over the years," one of the two people said.

“Pine Labs may, however, close another pre-IPO round before the listing and is currently negotiating with several private equity investors," the second person said.

Email queries sent to Pine labs and Morgan Stanley remained unanswered till press time.

Earlier this year, the company expanded its presence in South-East Asia through a partnership with card network major and investor Mastercard.

Pine Labs’ expansion plans in Asia include enhanced presence in emerging economies such as Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.
In April, the company acquired Singapore-based loyalty cashback startup Fave for $45 million to strengthen its presence in the Singapore and Malaysian markets.

Through the Fave acquisition, Pine Labs also aimed to launch the platform in India and enter the digital consumer payments business in the country.

It also had plans of taking its BNPL (buy-now-pay-later) platform to Singapore and Malaysia through Fave. The company has also announced plans to expand in West Asia soon.

Pine Labs’ solutions are used by merchants from diverse sectors—electronics, food and beverage, fashion, pharmacy, telecom and airlines.

Pine Labs enables online and offline last-mile retail transactions for more than 100 brands. It was founded in 1998 as a petroleum automation retail solutions company. In 2004, it entered the payments products and services for merchants market.