Pine Labs, a merchant commerce startup, has secured approval from a Singapore court to merge its local entity with its Indian unit and transfer all its assets and properties, allowing the firm to shift its operations to India.
Pine Labs revealed the court order in a recent regulatory filing.
Pine Labs provides a variety of products and services to merchants, such as cloud-connected point-of-sale machines and working capital. It is supported by Peak XV, Fidelity, Invesco, Temasek, PayPal, and Alpha Wave, boasting a valuation of over $5 billion.
It is among a few Indian startups relocating their domiciles to India recently. Meesho, Zepto, Flipkart, Razorpay, and Udaan are also considering similar moves. Fintech startups PhonePe and Groww have already moved their overseas holding entities to India.
Pine Labs declined to comment.
An investor in Indian startups stated that firms are shifting their domiciles to India because startups valued below $20 billion are unlikely to attract significant coverage from analysts in developed markets, resulting in limited demand from institutional investors.
“But in India, everything trades at a premium due to high demand for tech companies,” the investor remarked, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. Entrepreneur Gokul Rajaram made a similar observation about software companies in India.
The transfer is expected to help Pine Labs “achieve business synergies and more economies of scale,” the startup stated in its court filing. It will also facilitate “cost savings” and “simplification of the shareholding structure.”
