PayU's Amrish Rau joins Pine Labs as CEO

Soon after the resignation of Vicky Bindra as CEO of Pine Labs, the point-of-sale company has roped in former PayU India CEO Amrish Rau for the chief executive role. This comes less than a month after Rau resigned from his role of heading PayU India's fintech investments. 

In his three-and-a-half year long stint at PayU, Rau had served the company as the CEO and the head of financial technology partnerships & investments for Naspers as well as PayU India’s fintech investments and partnerships.

“Deep domain knowledge and innovative products designs have helped Pine Labs lead the market," said Rau in a press statement. "Using cloud technologies, Pine Labs wants to be all things commerce for merchants, help them save time and operate businesses efficiently. I feel excited to be part of the journey."

According to an ET report, Rau was also in talks with Sequoia Capital for a $10-12 million funding round for a startup in the retail PoS space. 

Rau along with Jitendra Gupta and Satyen Kothari had co-founded CitrusPay, PayU later acquired that in 2016 for $130 million in one of biggest fintech deals in India.

One of the most active angel investors, Rau has backed notable startups like Cred, Khatabook, DotPe, Open, Nuo and Leverage Edu. Prior to starting Citrus Pay, Rau also worked with major payment companies like Firstdata and NCR Corporation.

Rau’s experience will boost the future strategy of Pine Labs for high scale and growth. The company recently picked up a $300 million round and entered the coveted club of a unicorn — firms that are valued at $1 billion or more. 

The company is on the path of achieving break-even as it recorded operating revenue of Rs 491.63 crore with a net loss of Rs 13.74 crore in the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2019.