Pine Labs secures undisclosed funding from Mastercard for expansion of digital payments adoption in India

Digital payments major Pine Labs has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from global card company Mastercard. This investment is part of a partnership with Mastercard through which the companies would attempt to expand the digital payments adoption in the country.Mastercard joins PayPal and Temasek who pumped in around $125 million over 2018 into Pine Labs.In a note shared with the press, Pine Labs said together, the companies will offer a suite of value-added services, including Pine Labs’ end-to-end stored value solutions which will replace the paper ones now widely used by companies, retailers and consumers in South Asia and many other markets.[caption id="attachment_5358261" align="alignnone" width="1280"]

A sticker shows that a store accepts MasterCard. Image: Reuters[/caption]Pine Labs processes payments of $30 billion per year and serves some 140,000 merchants across about 450,000 network points. This deal could have vaulted Pine Labs into the unicorn club since the last investment had valued the retail payments company at $800 million.Further, Pine Labs also works closely with multiple banks and financial service providers to deliver instalment based payments and financing options for consumers.“This relationship is a great validation of the top-quality products that Pine Labs delivers to merchants,” said Lokvir Kapoor, founder and chairman of Pine Labs. “Together, we have a unique opportunity to use Mastercard’s global presence and technology infrastructure to enhance our growth and enable us to meet the growing needs of customers in India and beyond.”Through this deal, Sequoia Capital which owned majority stake in Pine Labs could have reduced its ownership further.“Smart devices are transforming how people shop. With this partnership, we’re continuing to build innovative solutions and provide people with new ways to pay right at their fingertips,” said Ari Sarker, co-president for Asia Pacific at Mastercard. “By joining forces with Pine Labs, we are reinforcing our strategy to deliver choice to consumers and to be the partner of choice for our customers in South Asia and around the world.”