Pine Labs swings to profit as costs grow slower than sales
Pine Labs processed 193 crore transactions during the quarter, up 23% from a year earlier, while its merchant base expanded 14% to 10.5 lakh merchants.
Pine Labs Ltd. on Wednesday reported a profit before tax of Rs 74.81 crore in Q3 FY26, marking a turnaround from a loss of Rs 14.64 crore in the same period last year.
The fintech company's revenue from operations rose 23.71% to Rs 744.27 crore in Q3 FY26 from Rs 601.64 crore a year earlier. Total expenses rose at a slower pace of 13.21% to Rs 704.91 crore, helping the company return to profitability.
Employee benefit expenses—one of the company's major cost centres—increased just 4.72% year-over-year to Rs 263.31 crore. Pine Labs said about 20% of new product codes are now AI-written, while overall headcount grew modestly by 8% to 4,679 employees from 4,324, with focused hiring in technology and sales roles.
Employee stock option expenses as a percentage of revenue continued to decline to about 4%, amounting to Rs 31.2 crore for the quarter.
The company's profit after tax stood at Rs 42.03 crore, compared with Rs 58.24 crore in the year-ago period, a decline of 27.83%.
Pine Labs processed 193 crore transactions during the quarter, up 23% from a year earlier, while its merchant base expanded 14% to 10.5 lakh merchants.
International operations accounted for 15% of the revenue mix, with nine-month revenue growing to Rs 302 crore in FY26 from Rs 237 crore in FY25. The company launched in-store payments and affordability solutions in Singapore, partnering with retailers including iStudio, Samsung, and Courts.
Subscription-linked revenues from in-store devices contributed 27% of total revenue in Q3 FY26. The company added over 100 new marquee clients across its offerings, including Honeywell, Carrier, Philips, Mumbai Duty Free, Waymo, Miniso, Blinkit, and Caribbean Airlines.
Online payments revenue grew roughly 50% year-over-year, with the company expanding into new categories such as hospitality, diagnostics, and fitness. New merchant additions in this segment included Thyrocare, Cultfit, Lenskart, Myntra, Swiggy, Navi, and Redbus.
Edited by Suman Singh