Pine Labs acquires fintech Fave for $45 million

BENGALURU: Pine Labs, the digital payments and commerce solutions provider to merchants, has acquired Malaysia-based fintech startup Fave for $45 million. As part of the acquisition, Pine Labs will bring Fave to India later this year and consumers can make payments across Pine Labs’s merchant network to get incentives like discounts and other deals.This will enable a wider consumer play for Pine Labs in India and in SouthEast Asia.
Fave has around 6 million consumers across Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia with gross payments volume of more than $400 million across 40,000 retailers. Pine Labs will roll out Fave across its 500,000 merchant network points powered in 3,700 Indian cities.
“With QR-code payments, every transaction is happening through the app on Fave. If the merchant can give coupon or cashback for the next transaction in the Fave app itself and the next time when a consumer scans QR code to make a payment, the coupon will be automatically applied,” Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs said explaining how this will increase repeat transactions from a user with a merchant. Joel Neoh,co- founder and CEO of Fave, will run India operations and hire additional 100 people as well.
“India has the digital advantage with young demography, growing aspirational middle class with rising disposable income and increasing digital savviness. We are confident that the APAC e-payments landscape will continue to achieve exponential growth in the coming decade,” Neoh added.
Fave’s investors like Sequoia Capital India and Singapore’s ride-hailing firm Grab are taking a cash exit from the firm while its founders and key employees will receive both cash and Pine Labs shares.