Pine Labs has been on the IPO trail for what feels like an eternity. And now it’s finally about to press the big red button. In all likelihood, there’s no turning back now for the Peak XV Partners-backed company.

Pine Labs has gone through various narratives when it comes to the IPO. At one point, a US listing was said to be on the cards but that never happened. This was when India was not considered a great destination for public listings.

But in the past few years, this notion has changed, and Pine Labs reverse flipped from Singapore and redomiciled in India to get set for the IPO. This time, it seems the company is finally ready. This is the coming-of-age moment for one of India’s original fintech pioneers, and it comes at a time when competitive intensity is at an all-time high in the Indian fintech space.

Every major startup and even some not so major ones have launched overlapping models and Pine Labs is not immune to these pressures.

The draft papers released this week lay out Pine Labs’ big plan: a fresh issue of shares worth a substantial INR 2,600 Cr, coupled with an offer-for-sale (OFS) component of over 14.78 Cr shares by its existing backers.

This is the moment the Noida-based company, founded way back in 1998, has been building towards. After years of navigating the treacherous currents of Indian fintech and regulations and adding more and more pieces to its point-of-sale business, today Pine Labs is a full-stack merchant commerce platform — handling everything from customer acquisition to retention to payments and financial services.

But in a market defined by the blitzscaling antics of UPI giants, Pine Labs seems like a slow mover. Will this find the right backing from the public markets? And despite its new-found profitability and diversified arsenal, can Pine Labs prove that it is ready to compete with other IPO-bound giants like PhonePe, Cashfree, Razorpay, Paytm, BharatPe and CRED to win over Indian merchants?

Investors Set To Cash Out

When it comes to Indian startup IPOs, there’s always a close eye on the existing investors. From Peak XV to Mastercard to PayPal, the public listing is bringing partial exits for some of the biggest names in fintech investing.

Peak XV is set to offload around 3.9 Cr shares from its huge 20.35% stake, a long-held bet that is now maturing. Private equity firm Actis and Singapore’s Temasek are........

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