Pine Labs, an Indian digital payments and financial service platform company, has reportedly raised an additional $50 million in funding, reaching an estimated valuation of $5 billion. Vitruvian Partners, a private equity firm based in London and a backer of companies like Byju's has also participated in the latest round.

As per a recent regulatory document filed in Singapore, the funding round includes a $15 million ESOP (employee stock ownership programme) buyback.

This comes after a month of funding where the fintech startup secured $150 million from Alpha Wave Global at the same valuation of $5 billion.

A secondary share sale component was also included in the funding, which offered a liquidation opportunity to the company's current shareholders.

Pine Labs — founded by Lokvir Kapoor in 1988 — is a merchant solution firm that empowers businesses to accept offline and online digital retail transactions. It currently controls around 350,000 PoS (point of sales) terminals across 3,700 cities and over 150,000 merchants in Malaysia and India.

It serves large, mid-sized as well as small merchants across the Middle East and Asia, including Apple, McDonald's Corp, Starbucks Corp, and more.

As of now, Pine Labs has successfully raised around a billion dollars and is currently headed by Amrish Rau.

State Bank of India, Unacademy's Gaurav Munjal, IIFL Asset Management, Invesco, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Dream11's Harsh Jain and Swiggy's Sriharsha Majety are some of its investors.

Moreover, the firm is planning to hit the public market soon in the coming future and has also filed for an IPO (initial public offering) in the U.S. in January 2021. It plans to raise around half a billion dollars from the public at a valuation of around $6-$7 billion.

Source Credit - https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/pine-labs-raises-another-50-million-ahead-of-its-ipo/articleshow/90510314.cms