The point-of-sale machine: Clearly, there is a world beyond the swipe

The point-of-sale machine has evolved from a mere swiping facility to a tool used by merchants for inventory management, bookkeeping and more

Last month, Pine Labs closed a $285-million funding round that valued it at $3.5 billion. And this, despite the pandemic which had led to a huge fall in the installed base of point-of-sale (PoS) machines — to 472 million units (in March 2021), from a life-high of 6.03 million in January 2021, according to the Paris-based Worldline’s India Digital Payments Report for Q1 2021.
 
The Reserve Bank of India’s data does not reflect a deployed base of six million units ever (it may have taken into account only “active” units). Says Deepak Chandnani, managing director for Worldline South Asia