Singapore's Pine Labs acquires gift card tech company Qwikcilver in $110 million deal

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Singapore-based Pine Labs, which provides a merchant platform and makes software for point of sale machines, has agreed to acquire Qwikcilver, a gift-card solution provider based in Bengaluru, for $110 million, the former company that has its largest operations in India said in a press release on Tuesday.
 
The acquisition will bring together the strengths of Qwikcilver’s brand-focused software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology platforms and Pine Labs’ merchant-technologies, Pine Labs, which has its own gift cards line of business, said in its release. The combined gift solutions business will be the largest in India with a customer base of over 250 brands and retailers, and 1,500 enterprise customers.
 
Qwikcilver, which was founded in 2006, counts venture capital firms Accel, Helion and PE firm Sistema among its investors. It was also probably the first Indian startup that ecommerce giant Amazon invested in.

Its technology is used by nine out of every 10 gift cards sold in the country including from Titan and Amazon gift cards. Qwikcilver saw an annualised gross transaction value of $1.5 billion across India, the Middle East and south east Asia.

Pine Labs’ merchant platform processes $20 billion in total annual transactions. Its technology is used by 1 lakh merchants in 3,700 cities and towns in India and Malaysia. It counts Sequoia India, PayPal, Temasek, Actis Capital, Altimeter Capital, Madison India Capital and Sofina as investors.
 
Pine Labs started its own gift solutions business - Pine Perks - four years ago. Today, its gift cards are used by 600 organisations across banking, insurance, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, FMCG and telecom industries.
 
“Qwikcilver’s technology and market expertise will help us scale up this business,” Vicky Bindra, Pine Labs’ CEO said in the release.
 
“We see excellent complementary strengths between the Pine Labs’ and Qwikcilver’s gift businesses. While Pine Labs has a strong merchant network, Qwikcilver has market-leading processing and distribution capability.  We are confident that both teams’ deep domain experience will accelerate our vision of building a world-class merchant-centric ecosystem,” Bindra added.
 
Kumar Sudarsan, Co-Founder and CEO of Qwikcilver said, “We have built a robust and versatile stored value and gift card technology platform. We have also built a strong network and enduring strategic brand relationships with the best brands in India, in the Middle East and in the South East Asian markets.” Kumar will join the Pine Labs leadership team after the completion of the transaction.