# Pine Labs shifts to upfront PoS terminal payments, bets on Apple Pay 2026-08-10T18:00:50+00:00 | Business & Economy | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Pine Labs CEO Amrish Rau said on the Q1 FY27 earnings call that 25-30% of new PoS terminal deployments now require merchants to pay upfront, a structural shift from the earlier leasing model. The change aims to reduce depreciation costs and merchant attrition, though it will near-term hurt contribution margins. Outside India, the company neither invests in terminals nor deployments, billing only for software and backend processing. Rau expects Apple Pay to enter India before the end of 2025, which he believes will push more transactions back to credit cards. The company also revealed its issuing platform now generates about Rs 100 crore in annual revenue, covering gift cards, prepaid cards, and NCMC metro cards. Pine Labs has started distributing gift cards through Blinkit and Zepto and Roblox gift cards, betting on quick commerce and gaming as growth channels. ## Coverage - medianama.com Tags: Apple Pay India, fintech, gift cards, Pine Labs, PoS terminals, quick commerce Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/pine-labs-shifts-to-upfront-pos-terminal-payments-bets-on-apple-pay/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/pine-labs-shifts-to-upfront-pos-terminal-payments-bets-on-apple-pay/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.