Fave acquired by Pine Labs for US$45mil

By Digital News Asia April 13, 2021

Fave to roll out in India this year, across 500K merchants and 3,700 cities
Fave founders will have role expanded; to introduce new payment features, hire more

Fave acquired by Pine Labs for US$45mil FINTECH platform Fave has been acquired by merchant commerce platform Pine Labs in a deal valued over US$45 million (RM185 million). Since its inception in 2015, Fave has enabled 6 million consumers in Southeast Asia to save over US$400 million across 40,000 retailers.

Fave currently operates in 35 cities across Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Now, with the acquisition, Indian consumers will be able to use Fave app later this year to save across 500,000 merchant network points powered by Pine Labs across 3,700 cities in India.

In a statement, both companies noted that the acquisition will help them accelerate their growth in the Asia region and unlock massive consumer opportunities across retail, F&B, fashion, and FMCG markets.

As part of the acquisition, Fave’s founders will have their roles expanded to lead the overall consumer platform for the group across Asia. Fave will also be hiring over 100 new employees in Southeast Asia and India to accelerate cashless payments and smart savings across the region.

Additionally, Fave will continue to introduce new smart payment features via the Fave platform. In August 2020, Fave announced a partnership with Singtel and DBS Bank that has enabled over half a million Singaporeans to use their respective Singtel Dash and Paylah! e-wallet app to pay at Fave partner stores.

Fave acquired by Pine Labs for US$45mil "Consumers have tremendous choices in their payment types. They want to be sure that they save on every transaction. Fave helps consumers apply their best rewards, coupons, gift cards and cashbacks on all transactions in a seamless manner,” said B. Amrish Rau, chief executive officer (CEO), Pine Labs (pic, above).

“Joel and the Fave team have built a loyal consumer base with their smooth checkout experience. We are excited to partner with them in this journey in Southeast Asia and India.”

Fave acquired by Pine Labs for US$45mil Adding to this, Joel Neoh, co-founder and CEO of Fave (pic, right), said: "Really excited to work with Amrish and the Pine Labs team to continue expanding the Fave platform across the Asia region. Pine Labs has been a great partner and investor for us, and it only made sense for us to join our synergies together and work towards our shared vision of building a truly global consumer and merchant platform.”

Neoh added that India has the digital advantage, owing to young demography, growing aspirational middle class with rising disposable income, and increasing digital savviness. “We are confident that the APAC e-payments landscape will continue to achieve exponential growth in the coming decade. Together, we will be stronger, faster and better,” he concluded.

In India, introduction of the Fave app this year comes at an opportune moment, with UPI growing to 2.7 billion transactions in March 2021. Pine Labs also recorded a significant growth of 171% in UPI transactions over the last two quarters. Fave app will be rolled out across all major Indian cities.