Pine Labs aims to take Indian fintech global even as it cuts valuation for IPO

Pine LabsAn Indian merchant-to-commerce startup, backed by PayPal and Mastercard, is going public this week at a valuation roughly 40% lower than its last private round — even as it doubles down on plans to take its fintech platform global.

The Gurugram-based fintech has set a share price band of ₹210–₹221 (about $2.00–$2.50), valuing the company at about ₹254 billion (about $2.9 billion) at the upper end of the range. This represents a nearly 40% decline from its last Personal valuation of over $5 billion In 2022.

Pine Labs cut the initial offer by 20% to ₹20.8 billion (about $234 million) from ₹26 billion in its draft prospectus filed in June, while the sale offer was cut 44% to 82.3 million shares from the previously planned 148 million shares.

Existing investors including Peak XV Partners, Temasek Holdings, PayPal and MasterCard sold part of their holdings in the offering.

Pine Labs CEO Amrish Rau told reporters at a press briefing on Monday that investors chose to retain a large portion of their shareholding, resulting in a smaller offer for sale.

“When it comes to pricing this IPO, we have been very clear that we want to gain goodwill and we want everyone’s support while pricing this IPO,” he said. “We believe we’ve been able to sustain this because, at the end of the day, it takes a village to pull together to build a successful IPO.”

Founded in 1998, Pine Labs initially focused on deploying point-of-sale terminals for merchants but has since evolved beyond payment acceptance to enable bill payments and facilitate account-aggregator-based transactions through platforms such as Amazon Pay and CRED.

Currently, about 70% of Pine Labs’ revenue comes from digital infrastructure and transaction services, with the remaining 30% from issuing and acquiring businesses, Rau said.

Pine Labs is among the few Indian startups already serving customers outside the country and is looking to expand its international presence following a planned listing on the Indian stock exchange. It is compatible with Indian Govt Broad push To create a globally competitive fintech offering. The company is part of a growing group of technology companies that include Shifted their headquarters to India To tap into the country’s large base of retail investors and align more closely with the local regulatory framework.

The firm currently serves more than 980,000 merchants, 716 consumer brands and 177 financial institutions, powering more than 6 billion transactions worth ₹11.4 trillion (about $128 billion). It is already operating in 20 countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Africa, UAE and USA

Between fiscal years 2023 and 2025, Pine Labs’ revenue from international markets is expected to grow by about 58%, Rau said.

“What we have done in fintech in India, no other country has done anything close to it,” he told reporters. “We have this IP knowledge, the technology stack that we’ve built, and the opportunity to make it global. We’re the first company to actually do this, and we believe that our fintech stack is very much in demand in the global market, and that’s why we’re winning these clients in this international market.”

In India, Pine Labs competes with the likes of Razorpay, Paytm and Walmart-owned PhonePe. The company turned profitable in the June quarter, posting a net profit of ₹47.86 million (about $540,000), compared with a loss of ₹278.89 million a year earlier. Revenue from operations in the quarter rose 17.9% year-on-year to ₹6.16 billion (about $69 million). The firm’s overseas business contributed about 15% of total revenue, amounting to ₹943.25 million (about $11 million), up from ₹795.97 million a year ago.

Pine Labs’ listing comes among a wave of Indian tech companies to go public, including growth, Lens card, Shadowfax, meshAnd the boatAll of which are expected to launch their offerings this year.