Pine Labs ropes in Flipkart exec Phanimohan Kalagara as new CTO

By Joseph Rai

  • 20 Oct 2021
Credit: 123RF.com

Pine Labs Pvt Ltd on Wednesday said it has appointed Phanimohan Kalagara as its new chief technology officer (CTO).

Kalagara will replace Sanjeev Kumar, who will now move into a new role within the company and head the research and development (R&D) vertical, said Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs.

Prior to this appointment, Kalagara was with e-commerce company Flipkart where he was the senior vice president (SVP) of product and engineering. Previously, he spent 12 years with global fintech company PayPal.

Pine Labs was founded in 1998 by Rajul Garg, who quit the company in 2003. The payments company was then taken over by Lokvir Kapoor, currently the firm's chairman.  

Initially, it focused on large-scale smart card-based payments and loyalty solutions for Indian metro companies before shifting to its current business model and raising significant venture capital funding along the way from investors such Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, Actis, PayPal and Mastercard.

Last month, Pine Labs raised $100 million (Rs 734 crore) in a new investment round from US-based investment management company Invesco.

This funding came just months after it closed its $600 million funding round earlier in July from US-based asset management firm Fidelity Management and Research Company, BlackRock, Ishana, Tree Line, and a fund advised by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC. IIFL AMC, via its Late-Stage Tech Fund, and Kotak Funds also took part in the round.

Last week, Pine Labs entered the online payment space with the launch of its new product Plural, that will bring it head-to-head with the likes of Razorpay.