SBI Mutual Fund buys 2.4 lakh shares in Pine Labs, crosses 5% stake

SBI Mutual Fund has purchased 2.4 lakh shares of payments firm Pine Labs, taking its total shareholding to over 5%, according to a stock exchange filing.

The stake buy, executed through various schemes of the fund house, increased its holding to 5.75 crore shares from 5.73 crore shares earlier. The transaction pushed its stake past the 5% threshold, triggering disclosure requirements under Sebi’s takeover regulations.

SBI Mutual Fund was also among the anchor investors in Pine Labs’ Rs 1,753 crore anchor round ahead of its initial public offering.


Pine Labs, which listed on the exchanges in November last year, currently commands a market capitalisation of about $2.4 billion on the BSE. The company debuted at a valuation of around $2.9 billion, nearly half its last private market valuation of $5 billion.

Founded in 1998, Pine Labs began by digitising payments for fuel retailers before expanding into point-of-sale deployments for banks and digital payments. Following the surge in card and UPI transactions in 2015-16, the company invested in smart terminals, QR-based UPI acceptance and tap-and-go payment solutions.

In 2022-23, Pine Labs forayed into fintech infrastructure with the acquisition of Setu and expanded into bill payments by powering the Bharat Bill Payment System. In recent years, it has sharpened its focus on credit-linked payment offerings at merchant outlets, enabling EMI and pay-later transactions.

The company has raised capital from investors including Mastercard, PayPal, Actis and Sofina. It last raised $50 million from London-based private equity firm Vitruvian Partners.

Earlier this month, ChatGPT maker OpenAI said it had integrated its artificial intelligence platform with Pine Labs to enable “agentic commerce”, allowing AI agents to discover, recommend and complete transactions on behalf of users.

At 12.20PM, Pine Labs shares were trading 3.1% down at Rs 192.70 on the BSE.