On April 13, Pine Labs announced a large majority investment in Mosambee, a fast-growing end-to-end payment solution provider in India. Mosambee is currently worth more than $100 million as a result of the merchant trade platform’s investment.
Alok Arora, Bhushan Thaker, and Sameer Chugh created Mosambee, a payments solution startup, in 2012. The company provides a merchant solutions platform to physical and online merchants in India and six other countries, and its products are used by over a million Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and government entities.
In a post-announcement interview with Moneycontrol, Amrish Rau, CEO of Pine Labs, stated that Mosambee and its team will continue to function independently. Technology and infrastructure will also remain autonomous.
Rau explained the acquisition’s motivation: “Pine Labs is expanding its product portfolio. However, I discovered a gap in the retail merchant categories. These retail businesses can become a highly relevant target category as we expand our product offering into commerce-related services and financial services. Mosambee can fill in the blanks for us here.”
Rau did not reveal the exact value of the deal or the interest purchased by Pine Labs in Mosambee.
Pine Labs takes an omnichannel approach, including PoS solutions as well as Plural, an online payment gateway that will be deployed in October 2021. In Southeast Asia, the business is extending its BNPL offering.
Pine Labs’ second investment in 2022, following the acquisition of Mumbai-based online payments business Qfix Infocomm. Setu, a fintech infrastructure startup, is also being pursued by the company. Pine Labs also paid $45 million for Fave in April 2021 to join the consumer payments industry.
Regarding the company’s acquisition strategy, Rau stated, “We will invest in any capabilities that will help us expand our core areas better and faster. We will do it organically in certain circumstances. and inorganically in others”
In February 2022, Mosambee announced the acquisition of Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) firm Benow.
Mosambee Co-Founder Sameer Chugh stated in a statement, “When we first launched our platform, Pine Labs was our first partner. Mosambee now serves a diverse range of enterprises, from SMEs to private and government entities to India’s largest banking institutions. With Pine Labs’ and its portfolio companies’ vast reach, we intend to continue delivering excellent profitability and game-changing solutions to our clients.”
Pine Labs, which is supported by Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, Actis, PayPal, and Mastercard, among other global investors, is said to have filed for an IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on a secret basis (SEC). Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been designated as the float’s consultants.
