Bengaluru: Payments firm Pine Labs reported an over fourfold jump in net profit to Rs 19.6 crore in the June quarter, aided by higher payment volumes and strong growth in its issuing and merchant businesses. Net profit stood at Rs 4.8 crore in the corresponding period last year.Total income rose 17% year-on-year to Rs 765.9 crore, while revenue from operations increased 20% to Rs 736.9 crore. The company also swung to a pre-tax profit of Rs 37.7 crore from a pre-tax loss of Rs 4.8 crore a year earlier.Despite the strong earnings growth, the company’s margin narrowed to 17.1% from 19.6% a year earlier, reflecting higher investments in technology, artificial intelligence and sales expansion.Pine Labs said it added around 500 salespeople over the past year, primarily across its mid-market, international and issuing businesses. Spending on data, cloud infrastructure and technology increased to Rs 64 crore from Rs 48 crore a year earlier. The company expects these investments to begin yielding returns in the second half of the financial year, with margins improving by March.The company maintained its full-year guidance of 21-23.5% growth in revenue from operations.Its digital infrastructure and transactions business, the largest contributor to revenue, grew 15% to Rs 499 crore, while revenue from its issuing and acquiring platform, which includes prepaid cards and payment processing services, rose 31% to Rs 238 crore.During the quarter, Pine Labs processed transactions worth Rs 4.2 lakh crore. Its merchant network expanded 18% year-on-year to 21.7 lakh digital checkout points, serving 11.5 lakh merchants. More than 70% of transactions at these checkout points were made through UPI.The company said UPI transaction volumes grew more than 80%, while transaction value in its affordability and processing business increased 54% to Rs 91,000 crore. International revenue rose 21% to Rs 114 crore, contributing about 16% of total revenue.During the quarter, Pine Labs also completed its Rs 88-crore acquisition of online checkout platform Shopflo.
