Unicorn fintech company Pine Labs invests in Malaysia-based Fave

Unicorn fintech company Pine Labs has made an investment and formed a strategic partnership with Malaysia-based company Fave, which provides QR payments and loyalty cashback to restaurants and retailers.

Nearly 50,000 of Fave’s and Pine Labs’ merchants in Southeast Asia will benefit immediately from the partnership. The collaboration aims to scale and grow more businesses digitally in the coming months. Fave will also be receiving funding from Pine Labs as part of the partnership. The companies did not reveal the investment amount.

“We’re excited to invest in Fave and partner with their leadership to provide integrated merchant commerce in Southeast Asia,” said B Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs. “Fave’s expertise in operating merchant loyalty programmes and the QR space and our own expertise in providing payments, loyalty and gift solutions will help merchants in the region navigate expansion in the post-Covid-19 world,” he said.

Pine Labs processes payments of $30 billion per year and serves some 150,000 merchants across about 450,000 network points in Asia.

Fave’s QR code will become interoperable and integrated with Pine Lab’s terminals, enabling a single, safe, and seamless platform for digital payments and loyalty solutions in Southeast Asia. Fave’s merchant payment acceptance and loyalty cashback solutions will expand into both debit and credit cards platforms via Pine Labs payment terminals. 

Merchants working with Pine Labs in Southeast Asia will also gain access to Fave’s loyalty solutions and reward their customers with cashbacks. They will also be able to have consolidation of payments and gain access to transparent reporting and payment reconciliation. They would also get customer insights and demographic data via access to Fave’s digital dashboard, Favebiz.

“With digitalisation playing an increasingly critical role in the recovery of Southeast Asia’s economy, merchants recognise that they need to accelerate the development of digital solutions to ensure they remain competitive,” said Fave’s co-founder and CEO, Joel Neoh. “We will work with Pine Labs to further strengthen Fave’s mission of helping merchants adapt to and digitalise in the new normal,” he said.

Southeast Asia’s post-pandemic recovery has started with promising signs that it is underway, with specific sectors such as automotive sales and F&B reporting business recovery and pent-up demand from customers. According to research by Mastercard’s Impact Studies, there has been a notable decrease in cash usage since the start of the pandemic. The Asia Pacific region is leading the surge in digital payments with the majority of consumers believing it is the cleaner, safer way to pay. About 91 per cent of those surveyed reported that they are now using tap-and-go payments.