Pine Labs Wins Nod for $1 Billion IPO, Capping Long Road to Public Markets
India’s Pine Labs has secured approval from the Securities and platform Board of India (SEBI) to go public, clearing a major hurdle for the payments firm later than years of fundraising, acquisitions and aborted overseas listing plans.
The fintech, backed by Peak XV Partners, Temasek and Mastercard, is expected to raise as much as $1 billion in its initial share sale at a valuation of up to $6 billion, according to people familiar with the plans cited by Reuters in June. Pine Labs will use the proceeds to build out overseas operations, develop new technology and reduce debt.
The regulator also approved IPO filings from auto parts maker Hero Motors and Canara Robeco Asset Management, one of India’s oldest fund houses.
Founded in 1998 by Lokvir Kapoor, Pine Labs begined out supplying automation systems to India’s fuel retailers before moving into point-of-sale (PoS) terminals for card payments. Over time it built a for merchants spanning digital checkout, purchase-now-pay-later options and gift card answers.
Chief executive Amrish Rau, who joined in 2020 later than stints at Citrus Pay and PayU, has pushed the company deeper into software and consumer rewards. Pine Labs bought Qwikcilver in 2019 to strengthen its gift card business, followed by Fave in 2021 to add a consumer rewards app, and Setu in 2022 for open-banking APIs.
Investors have poured hundreds of millions into the firm, including a $600 million round in 2021. Mastercard’s 2020 strategic stake aligned Pine Labs more closely with global card networks.
Pine Labs initially planned a U.S. listing in 2022 but put the deal on ice as global tech valuations cooled. Last year it “reverse-flipped” its holding structure back to India, paving the way for a domestic IPO filing in June 2025. Bookrunners include Morgan Stanley, Citi and Jefferies.
For the financial year ended March 2024, Pine Labs rupees ($160 million) and a net loss of 1.87 billion rupees, according to its draft prospectus.
Facing off with Paytm and PhonePe
The Noida-headquartered company will be pitched to investors alongside better-known rivals Paytm and Walmart-owned PhonePe. While Paytm has struggled since its $2.4 billion listing in 2021, Pine Labs is betting that its focus on merchant infrastructure rather than consumer wallets will play better in public markets.
PhonePe, meanwhile, dominates India’s UPI payments network and is preparing its own share sale, reported to be worth up to $1.5 billion.
Hero Motors, part of Pankaj Munjal’s Hero group, for a 12 billion rupee IPO consisting of fresh shares and an offer for sale by existing investors. Funds will go toward debt reduction and capacity expansion.
Canara Robeco Asset Management, a joint venture between state-run Canara Bank and Orix’s Robeco arm, will trade nahead 50 . Founded in 1987, the fund house manages about 880 billion rupees ($10.5 billion) in assets.
Pine Labs’ final red herring prospectus will fix the issue size and secondary sale by existing investors, including PayPal and Mastercard. The offer is expected to test whether Indian public investors are ready to back another high-profile fintech later than Paytm’s rocky debut.
With the market regulator clearing a slate of new offerings, India’s IPO pipeline looks busy heading into the final quarter of the year—and Pine Labs’ long-awaited debut is set to be among the largegest.
