Pine Labs opens its Android application program interface to developers

Developers can use the platform to build innovative solutions for small merchants and businesses

Digital retail payments platform Pine Labs will open the application program interface (API) of its Android-based in-store payment platform to developers. They can use the platform to build solutions for merchants and small and medium businesses (SMBs). The company announced there will be a dedicated application store to house developer apps. Pine Labs will also support the distribution of these apps to the merchant community.

“Asia Pacific is the fastest growing developer region in the world. Analysts have predicted that the developer community in India will be the largest in the world in five years, surpassing that of the United States,” said Vicky Bindra, chief executive at Pine Labs. “We would like these developers to solve interesting fintech challenges from this part of the world, using our APIs. We have, therefore, opened up our in-store and online payments APIs to the developer community,” added Bindra.

This move comes at a time when Pine Labs is gearing up for the next phase of its journey. It is planning to bring in the latest solutions that aim at providing better customer experience, foray into new markets and categories, and eventually go for an initial public offering (IPO) which may happen over the next two years. In the next couple of years, the Noida-based firm is also expecting the total payment volume (TPV) on its transactions to rise more than four-fold to $100 billion from $23 billion.

“Payments is emerging as the most integral part of all online and offline businesses, with the rise of smartphones and increasing acceptance of digital payments,” said Sanjeev Kumar, chief technology officer, Pine Labs. “We want developers to ‘plumb-and-play’ and build innovative solutions for merchants, powered by an easy and secure payment platform,” Kumar added.

Pine Labs had announced the opening of its online payment (payment gateway) API in May 2019. Backed by investors like Sequoia India, PayPal, Temasek and Sofina, Pine Labs’ offerings are used by 1,00,000 merchants in 3,700 cities and towns across India and Malaysia.

Pine Labs refutes allegation of patent infringement

Pine Labs Private Limited filed its appearance before the District Court in Bengaluru on Monday refuting allegations of “patent infringement IN309274” and to confirm its non-infringing status in the matter. Last week, Bengaluru-based payment technology firm Innoviti sued Noida-based Pine Labs for infringement on its patent for technology enabling Unified Payments Interface (UPI) at point of sale terminals.

“As leaders in this industry we will defend against such frivolous and anti-competitive legal actions as well as challenge the legitimacy of such generic patent grants,” said Pine Labs in a statement.  Pine Labs said it respects intellectual property rights and shall continue to comply with the law of the land. “We will continue to defend our position before the authorities and ensure uninterrupted business for our customers,” said the firm.

Last week, Innoviti said it had filed the suit for infringement against Pine Labs before the City Civil Court, Bengaluru and had been granted an “ex-parte ad interim injunction” against Pine Labs with effect from July 16, 2019. This prevented Pine Labs from manufacturing, selling, distributing, exporting and dealing with this technology through its Plutus Smart or any other device in India, according to Innoviti.