Pine Labs Pvt. Ltd, a Noida-based payments solutions provider, has invested in Malaysian financial technology company Fave Asia Technologies Sdn. Bhd.
The investment is part of a broader tie-up between the two companies, Pine Labs said in a statement. The Malaysian firm’s QR code platform will become interoperable and integrated with Pine Labs’ terminals.
Pine Labs didn’t disclose the amount it invested in Fave.
The two companies will also work together to expand cashless payment solutions for small and medium-sized offline enterprises. Merchants working with Pine Labs in Southeast Asia will also have access to Fave’s loyalty solutions and cashback programmes.
“Fave’s expertise in operating merchant loyalty programmes and the QR space and our own expertise in providing payments, loyalty and gift solutions will help merchants in the region navigate expansion in the post-Covid-19 world,” Pine Labs chief executive officer Amrish Rau said.
Fave co-founder and CEO Joel Neoh said the move would help merchants remain competitive by adapting to and expanding their digital offerings.
Fave, which began operations in 2015, connects merchants and consumers, and acts as an aggregator for payment services providers including Visa, MasterCard and American Express. The company says it is operational across 35 cities in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Pine Labs
Pine Labs’ investment comes over four months after it appointed Rau – the co-founder of Citrus Pay – as its CEO. Rau took over the position from Vicky Bindra, who remains an adviser to the company.
Rau’s appointment came after Pine Labs raised funding from global payments firm Mastercard Inc. in January. Reports at the time suggested that Mastercard had agreed to invest in the company as part of a larger $300 million (around Rs 2,138.58 crore) financing round that valued it around $1.2-1.5 billion.
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. Initially, it focused on large-scale smart card-based payment and loyalty solutions for Indian petroleum companies before shifting to its current business model.
In May 2018, Singapore state investment firm Temasek and American payments giant PayPal Holdings Inc. invested a total of $125 million in Pine Labs. That infusion came after private equity firm Actis led an $82 million funding round in the company in March that year.
