India’s leading B2B Fintech startup Pine Labs has made undisclosed amount of investment in Fave, a Singapore based digital platform that provides QR payment and loyalty cashback to offline merchants. This is a strategic investment made by Pine Labs, which means that both companies have struck a partnership that will help to propel the growth of their businesses.
As per the terms and conditions agreed under the partnership, Fave’s QR code will be integrated with Pine Lab’s Terminal, which should help the latter in growing its footprint in the Southeast Asian market. Pine Lab’s merchant will also get access to Fave’s loyalty and cashback solutions and offers.
Both companies are estimating that nearly 50,000 merchants will immediately benefit from this strategic partnership.
Pine Labs CEO Amrish Rau said “We are excited to invest in Fave and partner with their leadership to provide integrated merchant commerce in Southeast Asia.”
Incidentally, this partnership might indeed help Pine Labs in deepening its footprint in strategically important market like Southeast Asia. This hypothesis is backed by a recent study conducted by Mastercard, which claimed that there has been sharp increase in digital payment in Asia pacific region in the aftermath of coronavirus crisis.
Mastercard’s survey cited the growing perception among people that digital payment is a ‘clean and safe way of making payments’ as the main reason for surge in digital payments.
Fave is among the well-funded B2B Fintech player in Southeast Asian market, having reportedly secured $32 Mn through three funding rounds. The company has also made five acquisitions till date so far.
AS for Pine Labs, the strategic partnership with Fave is yet another strong symbol of the company’s growing global ambition. The Noida headquartered company is reportedly also in talks to acquire Germany’s struggling payment company Wirecard in order to increase its global footprint.
With one of the few B2B Fintech startups to boast over $1 Bn valuation, today Pine Labs is celebrated as one of the poster boys of the industry. It counts Mastercard, Flipkart and Paypal among its high profile investors.
According to a rough estimate, Pine Labs processes roughly $30 Bn payment every year by serving more than 1,50,000 merchants across India, Southeast Asia, and Middle East.
