State Bank of India invests $20 million in Pine Labs

Merchant commerce startup Pine Labs on Tuesday announced fresh funding of $20 million by State Bank of India, India’s largest lender.

The IPO-bound startup had raised $700 million in funding in 2021. This includes the $100 million funding round led by US-based Invesco Developing Markets Fund in September.

Commenting on the latest fundraise, Pine Labs CEO Amrish Rau 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,” Rau said. “This association with SBI is a personally satisfying experience as I had started my career selling financial services technology to SBI.”

The Noida-based firm counts Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, Actis, PayPal and Mastercard among its backers.

The funding comes at a time when the fintech startup is expanding its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) business across India and Southeast Asia. Pine Labs entered the consumer payment space with its April 2021 acquisition of Fave. It also has a presence in the gifting segment through its 2019 purchase of Qwikcilver.

Fave is currently available in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The company said it is planning to bring it to India in the near term.

The startup, which caters to large, mid-sized and small merchants across India and Southeast Asia, provides payment acceptance and merchant commerce solutions including enterprise automation systems such as inventory management and customer relationship management.

India's largest public sector lender had last year invested an undisclosed amount in banking technology startup Cashfree.