Pine Labs
- Pine Labs is coming out with a 100% book building; initial public offering (IPO) of 18,14,09,625 shares of 1 each in a price band Rs 210-221 per equity share.
- Not more than 75% of the issue will be allocated to Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs), including 5% to the mutual funds. Further, not less than 15% of the issue will be available for the non-institutional bidders and the remaining 10% for the retail investors.
- The issue will open for subscription on November 7, 2025 and will close on November 11, 2025.
- The shares will be listed on BSE as well as NSE.
- The face value of the share is Rs 1 and is priced 210.00 times of its face value on the lower side and 221.00 times on the higher side.
- Book running lead managers to the issue are Axis Capita, Morgan Stanley India Company, Citigroup Global Markets India, J.P. Morgan India and Jefferies India.
- Compliance Officer for the issue is Neerav Mehta.
Profile of the company
Pine Labs is a technology company focused on digitizing commerce through digital payments and issuing solutions for merchants, consumer brands and enterprises, and financial institutions. Its advanced technology infrastructure helps to accelerate their digitization journey in India and a growing number of international markets including Malaysia, UAE, Singapore, Australia, the U.S. and Africa. Its “Digital Infrastructure and Transaction Platform” comprises in-store and online payment infrastructure, affordability, value added services (VAS) such as dynamic currency conversion and transaction processing, and financial technology (FinTech) infrastructure solutions and software applications. Its “Issuing and Acquiring Platform” comprises issuing, processing and distribution of prepaid solutions and engagement solutions, along with its unified issuing and acquirer processing platforms. Through its cloud-based software technology it helps digitize, simplify and make commerce more secure for its ecosystem of merchants, consumer brands and enterprises, and financial institutions, ultimately empowering them to serve consumers and enable consumption.
Its offerings enable multiple workflows for merchants, including digital payments, smooth integration with billing systems, rewards and loyalty program management, affordability for their end consumers, value-added services such as dynamic currency conversion, and digitizing their stores through business software applications. Consumer brands and enterprises use its Issuing solutions to offer prepaid cards for gifting, promotions, cashback, wallets, refunds, rewards, loyalty, company- issued expense cards for their employees and employee and channel incentives. It is a technology partner for financial institutions enabling payments acceptance at merchant stores, enabling acquiring at merchant stores, and enabling credit disbursal through its affordability solutions. In addition, it offers issuing and acquiring solutions to financial institutions enabling issuance of credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards and forex cards to consumers, and enabling merchant acquiring solutions.
It broadly categorizes its offerings into its Digital Infrastructure and Transaction Platform and Issuing and Acquiring Platform, which it offers to merchants, consumer brands and enterprises, and financial institutions in India, Malaysia, the UAE, Singapore, Australia, the U.S. and Africa. Its customers comprise an ecosystem of 988,304 large, mid and small-sized merchants, 716 consumer brands and enterprises, and 177 financial institutions in India and across select international markets as of June 30, 2025. Its customer base spans industries such as department stores and retailers, supermarkets, e-commerce, restaurants, grocery, lifestyle, consumer electronics, healthcare, travel and hospitality, financial institutions and banks, FinTech companies, new-age technology companies as well as government organizations such as municipal corporations and state traffic police departments.
Proceed is being used for:
- Repayment / prepayment, in full or in part, of certain borrowings availed of by the company
- Investment in certain of its subsidiaries, namely Qwikcilver Singapore, Pine Payment Solutions, Malaysia and Pine Labs UAE for expanding its presence outside India
- Investment in IT assets, expenditure towards cloud infrastructure, procurement of digital check-out points (DCP) and technology development initiatives
- General corporate purposes and unidentified inorganic acquisitions
Industry Overview
India’s payments have evolved from cash-heavy transactions to AI-driven digital ecosystems. A decade ago, the initial shift saw POS terminals and credit cards replacing cash, driven by transaction banking and in-store innovations. Subsequently, about five years ago this was followed by a surge in digital wallets, UPI, and QR code adoption, fueled by fintech platforms and online commerce. Now, the focus is on AI, data-driven personalization and insights, and fintech infrastructure, moving beyond hardware dependency to create seamless and intelligent payment experiences through embedded journeys. Digitization has been pivotal in addressing these gaps, fostering a seamless, secure, integrated ecosystem that supports sustainable customer acquisition and retention, product launches and scalability, innovation, and financial inclusion. Traditional banks are still navigating the complexities of integrating legacy systems with modern technologies, ensuring platform stability, and managing evolving customer acquisition and retention strategies. This has led to innovation across value chains by new entrants, such as fintech players in digital payments and issuing.
With the growth of digital payments financial institutions (fintech firms, small finance banks, NBFCs, and banks) are looking to issue more credit, debit, and prepaid cards, and hence seek issuing solutions for consumers and acquiring solutions to enable digital payments for merchants. Number of cards issued and the volume of transactions through these cards represents the total addressable market for issuing and acquiring solutions. Over the last 5 years, India has witnessed continued growth in the total number of cards (credit, debit, and prepaid), which have risen by 7% from 1.0 billion in FY 2020 to 1.4 billion in FY 2025 with 60+ issuing and acquiring banks driving this growth. Looking ahead, the number of cards is expected to grow to 1.9 billion by FY 2029. Between the year FY 2020 and FY 2025, credit card transactions grew at 17%, prepaid transactions grew at 20% and debit transaction declined at -21%. The credit card transactions are further projected to grow at 13% CAGR between FY 2025 and FY 2029 with credit card on UPI being a key driver, whereas prepaid cards transactions are projected to grow at 22% CAGR and debit cards transactions is projected to decline at 6% CAGR during the same period.
Many of the factors driving digital payments in India are also being observed more broadly in Southeast Asia. SEA has a large retail market, estimated to be at $1.1 trillion in 2024. Digitization is playing a pivotal role in shaping the retail landscape, SEA having achieved 84% internet penetration and over 82% smartphone penetration in 2024, providing seamless access to digital platforms. Southeast Asian governments such as in Singapore, have proactively supported digitization by promoting initiatives around real-time payments, QR code interoperability and launch of digital banking regimes. The adoption of DCPs in SEA is also on the rise as the region experiences a rapid shift towards cashless payments. Singapore and Malaysia are leading the way with high DCP penetration (despite a low absolute count), while emerging economies like Vietnam and the Philippines show significant growth potential. The transaction value processed through DCP grew at a 10% CAGR from 2019 to 2024, driven by the increasing digitization of merchants and the rising adoption of alternative digital payment methods at DCP, such as e-wallets and Affordability solutions, which continue to reduce reliance on cash.
Pros and strengths
Ecosystem which brings together merchants, consumer brands and enterprises: The company directly engage and connect multiple distinct constituents in its ecosystem including merchants, consumer brands and enterprises, financial institutions, consumers, and an increasing number of growing partners including business software application providers. As the density of its ecosystem grows, with more participants and interactions across each of these categories, the platform, as a whole, improves. Each transaction brings more payments volumes that creates more data for improved processes and solutions. Each additional partner improves its ecosystem by enabling a smoother and “one-stop” commerce experience which in turn attracts more merchants, consumers and additional partners, hence creating and reinforcing network effects in its ecosystem. Its ecosystem enables it to have monetization opportunities with multiple participants across merchants, consumer brands and enterprises and financial institutions.
Platform with proven scale and growth in operating profitability: The company provides a wide suite of services within its Digital Infrastructure and Transaction Platform and Issuing and Acquiring Platform. In India, its core market, it was the largest player in closed and semi-closed loop gift card issuances by transaction value in Fiscal Year 2025. It was also the largest digital affordability solution enablers at DCPs in terms of total processed value, among the top five in-store digital platforms, and a prominent Bharat Connect transactions processing solutions provider in Fiscal Year 2025. In Fiscal Year 2025, it processed Rs 11,424.97 billion in GTV and 5.68 billion transactions through its platform. As of June 30, 2025, it had 988,304 merchants, 716 consumer brands and enterprises, and 177 financial institutions who use its platform to transact quickly and securely and manage their businesses as they grow.
Deep partnerships with large merchants, consumer brands and enterprises, and financial institutions: It has a deep presence in India, and an emerging presence internationally across its ecosystem partners. As of June 30, 2025, it served an ecosystem spanning across merchants in key verticals such as department stores and retailers, supermarkets, e-commerce, restaurants, grocery, lifestyle, consumer electronics, healthcare, travel and hospitality as well as financial institutions and banks, financial technology companies, and new-age technology companies. Through its suite of offerings, it has developed deep partnerships with marquee consumer brands and enterprises such as, Croma, and HDFC Bank, among others. It started as an in-store digital payments provider and expanded to offer various offerings over the years such as multi-issuer affordability solutions, full-stack issuing capabilities, and introduced innovative features such as billing integrations, merchant dashboards, customer spend analytics and loyalty programs among others. Its relationship with some of these customers span over 10 years with increasing engagement and increasing breadth and depth of offerings.
Full stack, cloud-based flexible and scalable technology platform: The company’s technology stack is purpose built to support the scale, speed and security required in digital commerce. Its technology stack leverages a cloud-native infrastructure that facilitates high availability and elastic scalability, enabling the platform to handle substantial transaction volumes. The API-first design promotes rapid integration, interoperability, and ease of customization, making it simple for its ecosystem partners to adopt and build upon. Its modular architecture allows for agile deployment of new features and services, while maintaining operational resilience.
Risks and concerns
Significant revenue comes from key customers: The company’s revenue from operations is concentrated among a few key customers. The company’s top 10 customers accounted for 29.30% and 30.95% of its revenue from operations for the three months period ended June 30, 2025 and Fiscal Year 2025, respectively. Any decision by these customers to reduce or terminate their business with it could significantly impact its business, financial condition and results of operations.
Majority of revenue comes from digital infrastructure and transaction platform: The company’s digital infrastructure and transaction platform operating segment accounted for 70.53% and 70.49% of its revenue from operations in the three months period ended June 30, 2025 and Fiscal Year 2025, respectively. Any disruption in its digital infrastructure and transaction platform offering could adversely affect its business, financial condition and results of operations.
Majority of revenue from external customers is geographically concentrated in India: The company’s revenue from external customers is geographically concentrated in India. 84.69% and 85.15% of its revenue from external customers for the three months period ended June 30, 2025 and Fiscal Year 2025, respectively was from India. Any adverse changes in the economic, legal, political, regulatory, public health, and other circumstances in India could disrupt its business and reduce its overall sales volume, thereby affecting its business, financial condition and results of operations.
Dependent on network of third-party vendors: The company relies on a network of third-party vendors to provide the hardware, software and support necessary to operate its platform and ecosystem. These include cloud computing providers, telecommunication service providers, call centre providers and software suppliers. If its third-party vendors fail to perform their obligations on time and as agreed contractually, it could cause a material adverse impact on its operations. Sustained or repeated system failures caused by third-party vendors could adversely affect its ability to meet the requirements of its customers and partners, thereby reducing the attractiveness of its platform and hindering its ability to attract and retain customers and partners.
Outlook
Pine Labs is a leading Indian merchant commerce platform that provides point-of-sale (POS) solutions, payment processing, and merchant financing services. Pine Labs empowers businesses of all sizes - from small retailers to large enterprises - with digital payment technologies and value-added services. Further, the company has deep partnerships with large merchants, consumer brands and enterprises, and financial institutions. On the concern side, the company’s revenue from operations is concentrated among a few key customers, and any decision by these customers to reduce or terminate their business with it could significantly impact its business, financial condition and results of operations. Moreover, the scale of the company’s business has increased significantly in recent years as result of strategic acquisitions and organic growth, and may not be indicative of its future growth prospects.
The issue has been offering 18,14,09,625 shares in a price band of Rs 210-221 per equity share. The aggregate size of the offer is around Rs 3809.60 crore to Rs 4009.15 crore based on lower and upper price band respectively. Minimum application is to be made for 67 shares and in multiples thereon, thereafter. On performance front, the company’s revenue from operations increased by Rs 5,047.28 million, or 28.52% to Rs 22,742.74 million in Fiscal Year 2025, from Rs 17,695.46 million in Fiscal Year 2024, primarily due to increase in revenue from its Digital Infrastructure and Transaction Platform and Issuing and Acquiring Platform segments. Moreover, the company’s loss decreased by Rs 1,964.16 million to a loss of Rs 1,454.87 million in Fiscal Year 2025 from a loss for the period of Rs 3,419.03 million in Fiscal Year 2024.
The company plans to continue to invest to scale its existing offerings through scaling its distribution, innovate and evolve its offerings alongside the demands of its customers. It intends to continue investing in its Digital Infrastructure and Transaction Platform, promote and cross-sell its suite of offerings, including in-store and online infrastructure, affordability, VAS and transaction processing and FinTech infrastructure including increasing adoption of value-added services such as loyalty and analytics. It continues to expand its reach by increasingly focusing on the needs of the mid-market and small merchant base. For its Issuing and Acquiring Platform, it plans to continue to identify and develop new use cases across prepaid, debit and credit issuing and processing, including refunds, consumer promotions, wallets, mobility, meals and expense management. The scaling of its existing offerings is also expected to include investment in technology infrastructure and capital expenditure.
