Fave snapped up by merchant commerce firm Pine Labs for US$45m

Southeast Asia consumer fintech platform Fave has been acquired by Pine Labs for over US$45 million. With this 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. Pine Labs is a merchant commerce platform based in India and Malaysia that serves prominent large, mid-sized and small merchants across Asia and the Middle East.

Fave's founders will have their roles expanded to lead the overall consumer platform for the group across Asia. The company will also be hiring over 100 new employees in Southeast Asia and India to accelerate cashless payments and smart savings across the region. Fave's co-founder and CEO Joel Neoh (pictured above) told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the employees will specifically focus on data science, engineering and product for Southeast Asia. It is also looking to recruit for business development and marketing for local teams in Southeast Asia and India. "We already have 30 staff in India and are planning to hire more," Neoh said.

The acquisition will help both companies accelerate their growth in the Asia region and unlock massive consumer opportunities across retail, F&B, fashion, and FMCG markets. Fave said joining forces with Pine Labs will reinforce its market position in Southeast Asia. Both companies are aiming to onboard between five to 10 million consumers on its smart payments platform in the first phase. 

According to Fave, it will continue to introduce new smart payment features via the Fave platform. The introduction of the Fave app across all major Indian cities comes as the unified payments interface (UPI) has grown to 2.7 billion transactions in March this year. Pine Labs also recorded a growth of 171% UPI transactions over the last two quarters. 

Neoh said Pine Labs has been a great partner and investor for Fave, and it only made sense for both companies to join their synergies together and work towards their shared vision of building a truly global consumer and merchant platform.

"India has the digital advantage with young demography, growing aspirational middle class with rising disposable income and increasing digital savviness. We are confident that the Asia Pacific e-payments landscape will continue to achieve exponential growth in the coming decade," he added.

Meanwhile, Pine Labs' CEO B. Amrish Rau (pictured below) said with the acquisition, the company now enters the consumer space. "Acquiring Fave is the culmination of extensive research and the deployment of a tech-first robust cashback programme that has already achieved tremendous success in Southeast Asia. We are confident that it will provide a new avenue to our Indian merchant partners by attracting their customers back to stores," he added.

Moving forward, both Pine Labs and Fave will continue to invest in product development. They will also have region-specific marketing and growth plans, as this will help them understand their end consumers better and build products that help can help consumers save.

Last August, Fave tied up with Singtel and DBS Bank and according to the company, the partnership has since enabled more than half a million Singaporeans to use their Singtel Dash and Paylah! e-wallet app to pay at Fave partner stores. Fave currently operates in 35 cities across Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

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