Noida-based fintech firm Pine Labs gets SEBI approval for IPO

Indian fintech firm Pine Labs has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to launch its much-anticipated initial public offering (IPO).

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The Noida-headquartered company filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) in late June and secured SEBI’s observations on September 11, effectively a regulatory green light. The proposed offering will comprise a fresh issue of shares worth up to Rs 2,600 crore ($304 million) and an offer for sale of as many as 14.78 crore shares by existing investors.

Among those set to pare holdings are Peak XV Partners, Temasek’s Macritchie Investments, Actis, PayPal, Mastercard, Invesco, Madison India Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, MW XO Digital Finance, and Lone Pine Capital’s Lone Cascade.

Pine Labs co-founder Lokvir Kapoor will also sell part of his stake. Peak XV alone plans to offload up to 39 million shares, trimming its 20.35% ownership by about 3.6%, while Actis and Temasek are each expected to reduce their stakes by roughly 1.4%.

The company has also left room for a pre-IPO placement of up to Rs 520 crore, subject to board and regulatory approval. If executed, this would reduce the size of the fresh issue accordingly.

Proceeds from the new share sale will be directed toward repaying or prepaying borrowings of about Rs 870 crore, as well as investing in Pine Labs’ international subsidiaries — Qwikcilver Singapore, Pine Payment Solutions Malaysia, and Pine Labs UAE. The firm also plans to allocate capital to strengthen its cloud infrastructure, expand digital checkout solutions, enhance IT assets, and cover general corporate purposes.

Founded in 1998 by Lokvir Kapoor, Rajul Garg, and Tarun Upadhyay, Pine Labs has evolved from a card-based payments provider into a full-stack merchant commerce platform. Today, it offers point-of-sale terminals, online payment gateways, and other digital payment solutions to merchants across India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

The IPO is being shepherded by a consortium of global investment banks, including Axis Capital, Morgan Stanley India, Citigroup Global Markets India, J.P. Morgan India, and Jefferies India, which are acting as book-running lead managers.

Financially, Pine Labs has turned profitable ahead of its public debut. The company reported a net profit of Rs 44.97 crore in FY25, swinging from a loss of Rs 182.31 crore in the prior year. Total income rose 25.5% year-on-year to Rs 1,735.1 crore, while expenses increased just 3.3% to Rs 1,676.8 crore.

In the first nine months of FY25, it recorded a profit of Rs 26.1 crore compared with a loss of Rs 151.6 crore in the same period the year before.

While Pine Labs has yet to announce official timelines, CEO Amrish Rau has previously indicated that the company is targeting a listing in the second half of 2025.