Pine Labs taps Blinkit and Zepto as it resets POS economics and expands gift-card distribution

Pine Labs is shifting more POS hardware costs upfront, plans 125,000–130,000 terminal deployments this year and is widening gift-card distribution through Blinkit and Zepto. The payments firm is also building issuing, prepaid-card and international growth engines.

— Source publishedMon, 3 Aug, 2026, 17:37 IST·First seen Mon, 3 Aug, 2026, 17:38 IST·Source Entrackr

What happened

Pine Labs is shifting POS hardware economics, expanding its Rs 100 crore issuing business and selling gift cards through Blinkit and Zepto. It also plans new

Key facts

  • 25-30% of new terminal deployments require upfront hardware purchase
  • 125,000-130,000 terminals planned for deployment during the year
  • Credit issuing and acquiring processing business has nearly Rs 100 crore in annual revenue
  • Issuing platform spans nearly 20 countries
  • Meal, fuel and expense cards planned by October
  • 30,000 terminals deployed with GCash in the Philippines
  • 500 sales employees added over the past six months
  • Nearly 90% of new code in several divisions uses AI-assisted tools

Why this matters

Blinkit and Zepto partnerships position Pine Labs as a distribution-minded payments platform, making quick-commerce, prepaid and cross-border capabilities logical areas for partnership or acquisition interest.

What to watch

  • Whether 125,000–130,000 terminals are deployed without a material rise in merchant churn or sales-cycle delays.
  • Changes in terminal pricing, installation fees, rental terms and merchant willingness to absorb upfront costs.
  • Gift-card SKU breadth, delivery times, promotional placement and repeat purchase rates on Blinkit and Zepto.
  • Evidence that quick-commerce gift cards drive incremental purchases rather than cannibalizing existing online gift-card channels.
  • New bank-issuer, enterprise rewards, prepaid-card or international acquiring partnerships.
  • Margin commentary on hardware subsidies, payment take rates, gift-card commissions and customer acquisition costs.
  • Competitor responses from Paytm, Razorpay, PhonePe, Worldline and bank-led POS providers.
  • Bundle terminal deployment with payment acquiring, merchant lending, loyalty and prepaid-card services to justify upfront hardware pricing.
  • Use Blinkit and Zepto data to target occasion-based gift-card inventory, including festivals, corporate rewards, gaming, food delivery and travel.
  • Pursue issuer-bank and enterprise partnerships that make Pine Labs the fulfillment and processing layer behind digital gift-card programs.
  • Prioritize terminal deployments among merchants where omnichannel checkout, QR, card acceptance and gift-card redemption can share the same operating stack.
  • Increase fraud, refund and chargeback controls for instant digital gift-card delivery, where resale and laundering risk rises with convenience.

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