Pine Labs, a leading provider of retail point of sale (POS) solutions, is eyeing an entry into South East Asian markets, a top company official has said.
Retail POS terminals simplify payment acceptance, while creating business opportunities for merchants and card issuers to connect with consumers.
“We are in the process of setting up business in South East Asian countries. By February 2016, we hope to set up our first overseas venture which will come up in Malaysia,” Kush Mehra, President-APAC, Payments Business, Pine Labs, said in an interview here.
For its overseas foray, Pine Labs is now eyeing entry into Singapore, Thailand besides Malaysia, Mehra added.
POS terminals
At present, Pine Labs’ POS terminals handle 18-20 per cent of total cards volume (debit and credit cards) put through offline POS terminals in India, Mehra said, adding that the aspiration is to take it to 50 per cent in the next few years.
From the existing level of nearly 1 lakh POS terminals in the market, Pine Labs wants to take its retail POS deployment count to 5 lakh in the next three years, Mehra said.
This year the company wants to deploy another 1 lakh POS terminals largely through expansion in retail establishments. “Last year, we had presence in 12 cities. This year, we are at 44 cities where our people are sourcing merchants. We will continue to work on brick and mortar expansion,” Mehra said.
Besides retail expansion, Pine Labs is looking to add new segments such as ‘Education’ where its POS terminals could be deployed.
India currently has 12-13 lakh POS deployed spread across the country. While the market for POS has grown 15-18 per cent at best in recent years, the card issuance has exploded in recent decade.
New dimension
Pine Labs POS’ terminals are now facilitating purchases through mobile wallets. A retail establishment, where this solution is now available, is Future Group’s Big Bazaar outlet.
In the last 45 days (since July end), Mobikwik(mobile wallet) has done 50,000 transactions involving volume of Rs 4 crore in such outlets, Mehra said.