SBI to invest in Pine Labs

Mumbai: Pine Labs, a leading merchant commerce platform, has announced a new investment of $20 million from State Bank of India (SBI), India's largest commercial bank.

Earlier in 2021, Pine Labs had raised a total round size of $600mn from a marquee set of new investors and followed it up with a $100mn fundraise from US-based Invesco Developing Markets Fund. In addition to augmenting its merchant commerce offerings at the offline point-of-sale, Pine Labs is now looking to invest in scaling Plural, its newly launched brand of online payment products and emerge as an omnichannel partner of choice for merchants.

Commenting on the new fund raise, B Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs, said: "We are thrilled to have the largest bank of India, the State Bank of India place their trust in us and welcome them in this journey where we are empowering merchants with seamless and secure payment experiences across offline and online platforms. In the last one year, several marquee investors have placed their trust in our business model and growth momentum and that is a gratifying feeling. This association with SBI is a personally satisfying experience as I had started my career selling financial services technology to SBI."

Pine Labs is also expanding its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) business across India and Southeast Asia. The company has entered the consumer payment space with its April 2021 acquisition of Fave, one of Southeast Asia's leading consumer fintech platform, and has a leading presence in the Gift, Prepaid and Stored Value segment through its 2019 acquisition of Qwikcilver.