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Pine Labs converts into public, appoints independent directors

EntrackrEntrackr · 1m ago
Pine Labs converts into public, appoints independent directors
Medial

Pine Labs, a merchant commerce and payments platform, is set to debut on the Indian stock exchange, with its Indian entity recently converted into a public company — a key step toward its planned IPO. This conversion comes just weeks after the company received final approval from the National Company Law Tribunal to shift its domicile from Singapore to India. The board at Pine Labs has passed a resolution for approval to change its status to a public company and rename it from “Pine Labs Private Limited” to “Pine Labs Limited” as per its regulatory filing. The fintech unicorn also appointed three independent directors in compliance with the Companies Act, ahead of filing its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Pine Labs has appointed Amrita Gangotra, Smita Chandramani Kumar, and Maninder Singh Juneja as independent directors, as per the filing. Gangotra, with over 35 years of experience in tech and business leadership, also serves on the boards of companies including Triveni Turbine, Max Healthcare, and ABB India. Kumar, a former RBI official with over three decades of experience, and Juneja, who has held senior roles at ICICI Bank, TransUnion CIBIL, and Niva Bupa, also sit on multiple boards. Last month, Pine Labs promoted its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Amrish Rau, from the role of Additional Director to Managing Director and Chairman. Entrackr exclusively reported the development. The payments firm is eyeing to launch an IPO in the second half of 2025. As per media reports, it’s eyeing a $1 billion public issue and would comprise of issue of fresh equity shares and an offer for sale (OFS). Pine Labs also roped in Axis Capital, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Jefferies as bankers. Pine Labs is a merchant commerce platform that offers POS (point of sale) services which let merchants accept plastic cards and QR-based payments in their stores. It also offers Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), invoice management, and gifting solutions to merchants. According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Pine Labs has raised nearly $1.3 billion in funding to date from investors including Peak XV Partners, Temasek, PayPal, Mastercard, and others. The company currently holds a valuation of $5 billion.

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Amagi appoints independent directors ahead of IPO

EntrackrEntrackr · 1m ago
Amagi appoints independent directors ahead of IPO
Medial

Amagi, a cloud-based media SaaS company, has appointed two independent directors in compliance with the Companies Act, ahead of filing its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The board at Amagi has appointed Ira Gupta and Giridhar Sanjeevi as independent directors of the company, its regulatory filings accessed from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) shows. Gupta currently serves as an Independent Director at SRF Limited and Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company. Previously, she was Head of HR at Microsoft India and held leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline. The details about Sanjeevi couldn’t be ascertained. As per media reports, Amagi is planning to raise Rs 3,200 crore through public listing, and has appointed Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citigroup, IIFL Capital, and Goldman Sachs as book-running lead managers. Amagi is a cloud-based media SaaS company offering solutions for content creation, distribution, and monetization. Its platform enables broadcasters to virtualize operations and deliver personalized ads for clients such as Warner Bros., NBCUniversal, Rakuten TV, and Paramount. According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, the SaaS unicorn has raised around $340 million to date from investors including Premji Invest, Accel, General Atlantic and others. Amagi, which had secured a stable revenue stream following a challenging pivot, became a unicorn in March 2022 after raising $100 million in its largest funding round led by General Atlantic. During the fiscal year ending March 2024, the company recorded 29% year-on-year growth in its operating revenue to Rs 879 crore while managing to reduce its losses by 23.7% to Rs 245 crore in FY24. Several companies gearing up for their IPOs—such as Zepto, Milky Mist, PhysicsWallah, and Shadowfax—have recently added independent directors to their boards to comply with SEBI’s regulatory norms. In April, Zepto brought on Akhil Gupta, Vice Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, as an independent director. That same month, Milky Mist appointed Radha Venkatakrishnan and Mallika S. Janakiraman as additional (independent) directors. Earlier, edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah and logistics startup Shadowfax each named three independent directors in March and February, respectively.

Baron and Invesco mark up Pine Labs’ valuation

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Baron and Invesco mark up Pine Labs’ valuation
Medial

US-based investment firms Baron Funds and Invesco have marked up the valuation of fintech unicorn Pine Labs. While Baron increased its valuation to $5.8 billion, Invesco marked the firm’s value up to $4.8 billion as of December 2023. Earlier, Baron Funds valued the firm at $5.3 billion in September last year whereas Invesco cut its valuation to $3.9 billion as of October 31. Invesco had last invested $100 million in Pine Labs in September 2021 while Baron Capital led a $285 million round in the fintech unicorn in May. ET reported the development first via regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Pine Labs has been facing ups and downs in its fair valuation since last year. For the record, Fidelity marked up its stake value in July last year but later slashed its valuation to $3 billion from $4.7 billion as of October. Pine Labs’ revenue continued to climb in FY23 as its collection spiked 56% to Rs 1,588 crore. However, its losses still not tapering down and grew by 12% to Rs 227 crore. The firm is yet to file its FY24 numbers. Pine Labs has been trying to go public for the past few years as its backers including Peak XV Partners are eyeing an exit. Last year, it finalized bankers for an IPO in the US but the attempt didn’t materialize even though the firm’s chief executive Rau refuted the reports of delaying the public listing plan on NASDAQ. On the lines of other large fintechs such as Groww and Razorpay, Pine Labs is seeking to move its domicile to India which appears to have a better public market sentiment for tech companies. Besides Pine Labs, Swiggy, Meesho, FirstCry and Ola Electric also saw markups in their valuation in the last six months.

Milky Mist appoints independent directors ahead of IPO

EntrackrEntrackr · 2m ago
Milky Mist appoints independent directors ahead of IPO
Medial

Indian dairy company Milky Mist has appointed two independent directors to comply with the Companies Act’s independence requirements ahead of filing its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The board at Milky Mist has appointed Radha Venkatakrishnan and Mallika S Janakiraman as additional directors (in the capacity of independent directors), its regulatory filing accessed from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) shows. According to media reports, the company plans to raise Rs 2,000 crore through its IPO, comprising a mix of fresh issues and offers for sale, with an estimated valuation of around $2.3 billion. JM Financial, IIFL Capital, and Axis Bank are likely to serve as lead managers for the offering. Founded by T. Sathish Kumar, Milky Mist follows a direct farm-to-fork model, sourcing milk from farmers and processing it in its facility. Specializing in value-added dairy products like paneer, cheese, and curd, it serves modern trade, quick commerce, and HoReCa segments. The company claims to process 1.5 million litres of milk daily at its fully automated 75-acre facility in Perundurai, Tamil Nadu. During the fiscal year ending March 2024, the company recorded 33% year-on-year growth in its revenue to Rs 1,900 crore. However, its profit slipped to Rs 19.46 crore in FY24 from Rs 28 crore in FY23. Recently, several companies such as Zepto, Physics Wallah, and Shadowfax have appointed independent directors to comply with regulatory requirements set by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) ahead of their planned public listings.

Exclusive: Pine Labs elevates CEO Amrish Rau to MD and Chairman

EntrackrEntrackr · 2m ago
Exclusive: Pine Labs elevates CEO Amrish Rau to MD and Chairman
Medial

Exclusive: Pine Labs elevates CEO Amrish Rau to MD and Chairman Pine Labs, a merchant commerce and payments platform, has promoted its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Amrish Rau, from the role of Additional Director to Managing Director and Chairman. His elevation comes as the company prepares for its Initial Public Offering. Importantly, Rau continues to be the CEO of the Peak XV-backed firm. The board of Pine Labs has passed a resolution appointing Amrish Rau as the Managing Director and Chairman of the company for a five-year term, effective March 24, 2025, according to its filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). Rau joined Pine Labs as its CEO in March 2020. Prior to this, he was chief executive of Prosus-backed PayU India. Pine Labs recently received final approval from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to reverse flip its Singapore-based entity back to India. With this move, the fintech unicorn joined other Indian unicorn companies such as PhonePe, Groww, Zepto, and Dream11, which also relocated their headquarters back to India recently. The payments firm is eyeing to launch an IPO in the second half of 2025. As per media reports, the company is eyeing a $1 billion public issue and would comprise of issue of fresh equity shares and an offer for sale (OFS). Pine Labs is a merchant commerce platform that offers POS (point of sale) services which let merchants accept plastic cards and QR-based payments in their stores. It also offers Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), invoice management, and gifting solutions. According to data intelligence startup TheKredible, Pine Labs has raised nearly $1.3 billion in funding to date from investors including Peak XV Partners, Temasek, PayPal, Mastercard, and others. The company currently holds a valuation of $5 billion. While Pine Labs is in the final stages of relocating its domicile from overseas back to India, a number of other startups—including Razorpay, Meesho, KreditBee, Udaan, Livspace, and several others—are also actively working on shifting their domiciles to India.

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