By Ashwin Manikandan and Jaspreet Kalra
MUMBAI, March 2 (Reuters) – Pine Labs will launch a stablecoin-backed prepaid card across nine countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia by the end of April, the fintech firm’s chief executive told Reuters, marking the first attempt by an Indian payments major to tap the fast‑growing market.
The Temasek and Peak XV-backed company aims to launch in countries that have a “stablecoin-friendly stance”, Amrish Rau said in an interview on Friday, without specifying which countries they would launch in.
Pine Labs does not plan to launch the product in India or China, Rau said.
The prepaid card, funded with stablecoins from consumers’ digital wallets, will enable payments in local currencies through real-time conversion at the point of sale, the CEO said.
Global payment firms Stripe, PayPal and Klarna are already using stablecoins to facilitate cross-border payments as the instruments gain wider acceptance in emerging markets, topping $310 billion in market value, led by U.S. dollar-pegged tokens Tether and USDC.
“Cross‑border payments potentially are getting replaced today by stablecoins… these are very real trends which are taking off globally and we are absolutely building for it,” Pine Labs’ Rau said.
The firm’s plan to launch the stablecoin-backed prepaid card, the first such initiative by a listed Indian firm, has not been reported previously.
While India does not prohibit stablecoins, the local central bank has cautioned the instruments could weaken monetary policy management and promote illegal payments. Indian banks and payments firms such as Walmart-backed PhonePe and Paytm do not offer stablecoin-backed payments.
China last month banned unauthorised offshore issuance of yuan-pegged stablecoins and is cracking down on virtual currencies.
TECH-FOCUSED APPROACH
Headquartered in India’s national capital region, Pine Labs offers payment solutions including point-of-sale machines to merchants for card payments.
The fintech firm’s shares have fallen about 28% since their trading debut in November amid increased competition in the digital payments sector, according to analysts.
Pine Labs has been expanding its footprint with clients in about 20 countries, with the overseas business adding up to about 17% of its revenue, Rau said. The firm’s gross revenue rose 24% on year to 7.44 billion rupees ($81.4 million) in the December quarter.
The firm seeks to focus on AI-based payments, cross-border expansion and stablecoin experiments, Rau said.
“All tech companies are into stablecoins, they are into AI, they are into cross‑border. That’s the way to go… If you don’t capture that opportunity, Indian fintechs are going to get left behind.”
($1 = 91.4300 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Ashwin Manikandan and Jaspreet Kalra in Mumbai; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
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