Now Reading: Pine Labs shifts to upfront PoS terminal payments, bets on Apple Pay
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Pine Labs shifts to upfront PoS terminal payments, bets on Apple Pay
Pine Labs shifts to upfront PoS terminal payments, bets on Apple Pay
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…
The Story in Brief
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.
The Indian Opinion
The usual hype around fintech 'disruption' misses the hard grind of balance-sheet management. Pine Labs is ditching the asset-heavy model of leasing PoS terminals for upfront payments, lower margins but a cleaner book. Claims that Apple Pay alone will revive credit card transactions ignore that UPI already powers 70% of PoS payments. The real test is whether gift cards via quick commerce and gaming can offset the near-term margin pain. Watch the breakage income disclosure in the next filing.
Source: medianama.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
