SBI invests Rs 150cr in card machine co Pine Labs

Mumbai: SBI has invested Rs 150 crore ($20 million) in merchant commerce platform Pine Labs. The deal valued

Pine Labs

significantly higher than $3 billion — the valuation in its previous financing round. In 2021, Pine Labs had raised $600 million from new investors and followed it up with a $100 million fund-raise from US-based Invesco Developing Markets Fund.

In addition to offering more features on its card swipe machines, Pine Labs is now looking to invest in scaling Plural, its newly launched brand of online payment products. This will allow the company to offer payment services for both in-store as well as online payments, the company said.

“We are empowering merchants with seamless and secure payment experiences across offline and online platforms. Last year, several marquee investors have placed their trust in our business model and growth momentum and that is a gratifying feeling,” said B

Amrish Rau

, CEO, Pine Labs.

SBI has been making significant investments in the payment acceptance space. It has a subsidiary

SBI Payments

, which onboards merchants for digital acceptance.

Pine Labs is also expanding its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) business across India and southeast Asia. The company has entered the consumer payment space with its April 2021 acquisition of Fave, one of southeast Asia’s leading consumer fintech platforms, and has a leading presence in the gift, prepaid and stored value segment through its 2019 acquisition of Qwikcilver.