Mastercard will financially back Indian merchant commerce platform Pine Labs' embrace of multi-channel installment financing as a payment option in addition to cards.
Mastercard's investment was not disclosed. Pine Labs provides a merchant platform that powers payments and what it calls equated monthly installments through bank partners. Pine Labs' clients include Citibank, Standard Chartered, HSBC, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, Indusind Bank, YES Bank, Tata Capital, Zest and Money Tap.
The model is popular with investors. Pine Labs has raised more than $310 million in five separate funding rounds prior to the Mastercard investment according to
In 2018
In 2017 Pine Labs expanded into Malaysia with an exclusive partnership with CIMB Bank. Today Pine Labs has a network of 21 financial services institutions and 100 brands in its network. Pine Labs processes $30 billion in payments annually serving 140,000 merchants across 450,000 network points.
Pine Labs was founded in 1998 to support card payments and incentive marketing for the retail petroleum industry. As its merchant base grew to include fashion & lifestyle, consumer electronics and restaurant brands, Pine Labs in 2012 became a cloud-based, unified point of sale (POS) platform provider. Pine Labs also offers working capital and stored value gift cards.
“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. 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,” said Ari Sarker, co-president for Asia Pacific at Mastercard in a press release.
