Pine Labs gets warm market welcome on $440M India IPO despite a valuation trim

Summary

Payment technology company Pine Labs, backed by PayPal and Mastercard, won over public investors on Friday, finishing its first day of trade 14% higher even after lowering its valuation for its $440 million IPO. This makes it the second-largest Indian fintech listing this year after online brokerage Groww’s nearly $750 million debut earlier this week. The stock opened at ₹242 and rose as high as ₹284 before settling at ₹252, up from the issue price of ₹221, resulting in a market capitalization of ₹289 billion (approximately $3.3 billion) for the Gurugram-based company. It’s a step down from Pine Labs’ 2022 private valuation of over $5 billion, but still a clear signal that investors are backing India’s growing push to take its fintech model global. Founded in 1998, Pine Labs has been steadily expanding beyond India and now operates in 20 markets, including Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, the UAE, the U.S., and some parts of Africa. What started as a point-of-sale terminal provider has since evolved into a broader payments platform that supports bill payments, account-aggregator transactions, and a range of merchant and acquiring services. In India, Pine Labs competes with the likes of Razorpay, Paytm, and Walmart-owned PhonePe. The company became profitable in the June quarter, posting a net profit of ₹47.86 million (about $540,000), compared with a loss of ₹278.89 million a year earlier. Revenue from operations rose 17.9% year-over-year to ₹6.16 billion (around $69 million), while its overseas business contributed roughly 15% of total revenue, rising to ₹943.25 million (about $11 million) from ₹795.97 million a year earlier. “We will never stop being a startup,” said Amrish Rau, CEO of Pine Labs, during its public listing ceremony. “Now that we are a listed company, [that word] will not be heard in our halls.” Existing investors, including Peak XV Partners, Temasek Holdings, PayPal, and Mastercard, were among those who sold part of their holdings in the public list...