Mumbai: Kenro Capital, which specializies in buying stakes from current traders, is evaluating a $30-40 million funding in Pine Labs because the fintech big’s early backers look to exit partly or in full forward of its itemizing later this yr, two folks acquainted with the matter.
“The funding agency has been chatting with a few of Pine Labs’ early backers to select up a stake because the companions perceive the corporate very effectively,” one of many two folks cited above mentioned, requesting anonymity. The corporate matches effectively inside their thesis of investing in people who have a transparent visibility for an IPO, the particular person mentioned.
Pine Labs was final valued at $5.05 billion when it raised about $50 million from Vitruvian Companions in 2022. It competes with Paytm and Walmart’s PhonePe.
In keeping with the second particular person, who additionally spoke on the situation of anonymity, the deal could probably have a slight low cost in valuation, because it often occurs in a secondary transaction.
Shareholders in a secondary transaction promote their stakes to different traders, and no new capital is injected into the corporate.
Pine Labs declined to remark, whereas Kenro didn’t instantly reply to Mint’s request for a remark.
The fintech filed its draft crimson herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Trade Board of India (Sebi) final month for its preliminary public providing. The filings confirmed that the corporate is ready to difficulty a mix of recent fairness value ₹2,600 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of greater than 14.78 crore shares.
Beneath the OFS, a number of outstanding traders together with Peak XV (largest institutional shareholder), Actis Pine Labs, Macritchie Investments, PayPal, Mastercard, Invesco, Madison India, amongst others, are anticipated to promote some stake. Even co-founder Lokvir Kapoor is promoting shares within the OFS.
The proceeds from the recent shares are aimed toward funding the compensation or prepayment of the corporate’s borrowings as much as ₹870 crore, and Pine Labs can be planning to take a position ₹60 crore in its abroad subsidiaries and ₹760 crore in IT belongings like cloud infrastructure and different technological initiatives.
Pine Labs appointed Morgan StanleyCiti InternationalAxis Capital, JPMorgan India and Jefferies to assist with the difficulty
Based in 1998 by Kapoor, Rajul Garg, and Tarun Upadhyay, Pine Labs provides retailers cost options, together with point-of-sale machines for card funds. In 2020, the corporate appointed Amrish Rau as its chief govt officer.
Kenro Capital, led by former Peak XV companions Piyush Gupta and Norbert Fernandes, has outlined plans to focus on minority stakes in monetary providers and client sectors, specializing in tech-led firms.
In his earlier stint, Gupta was overseeing a number of firms, together with Pine Labs, Healthkart, CarDekho and Zomato. He’s joined by Fernandes, a personal fairness skilled who has labored with Temasek, IvyCap Ventures and TR Capital. Fernandes has handled late-stage firms resembling Lenskart, SMT,Sapphire Meals and Bigbasket in his previous stints.
Kenro Capital invested $40 million ( ₹340 crore) in Bengaluru-based K12 Techno Companies, Mint reported in December.
Pine Labs earned a internet revenue of ₹26.24 crore within the 9 months ended December, in accordance with its DRHP. The corporate incurred a internet lack of ₹151.63 crore within the corresponding interval of the earlier yr.
Income from its operations rose to ₹1,273.88 crore in the course of the interval, up from ₹1,006.56 crore a yr earlier.