Pine Labs bets on retail, mobile payment solution

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Pine Labs, provider of payment, loyalty and retail solutions is set to tap the booming retail sector in India.

Talking to CyberMedia News, Lokvir Kapoor, chief executive officer of Pine Labs, said the company will be targeting the large format retailers as well as mom and pop stores for its payment solutions apart from telecom operators for its mobile solutions.

“India is a cash-based economy. However, with the advent of retail boom in the country electronic payments will surely replace cash, due to the organised retailing growing day-by-day. This also creates an opportunity for retail payment solutions and loyalty management solutions to be put in place,” he added.

Pine Labs solutions cater to normal retailers to oil companies. “We are targeting at tracking the disposable income of today’s consumers and integrating them with our applications in the retail and mobile solutions. Though majority is cash and only two or three per cent is electronic, this trend is set to grow to about seven to 20 per cent in the coming years,” he added.

“We intend to simplify the transaction process for both the retailer and the consumer with our expertise. By doing it we create an opportunity for growth for both the segments and provide space for related activity, such as offering discounts,” he said.

On the go-to-market strategy, Pine Labs has partnered with banks, oil companies such as BPCL, large retailers such as Future Group and a telecom operator to take the software across the country. “Through these partnerships we intend to expand out merchant base even at smaller towns. We are targeting at Rs 100 crore turn-over in the next three years from the current Rs 15 crore and majority will be driven by our channel partners,” Kapoor said.

Pine Labs also intends to create interactive kiosks for delivering a variety of services to consumers. “These kiosks will be loaded with mobile payment as well as value-added services such as mobile top-ups, m-commerce applications and ticketing services,” Kapoor noted.