Pine Labs to appoint Avendus’ Sameer Kamath as new CFO

Merchant payments company Pine Labs, which is set to launch its initial public offering, will appoint Sameer Kamath as its new chief financial officer.

Kamath is currently the group chief financial officer (CFO) at the Mumbai-based investment bank Avendus Capital. He is set to join the digital payments company soon. Kamath has spent over two decades in the financial services industry. Prior to Avendus, Kamath was the group CFO at Mumbai-based broking firm Motilal Oswal.

Kamath is joining Pine Labs as CFO following the June exit of Marc Mathenz, who left shortly before the company filed its draft with Sebi.

Kamath’s appointment comes with Shalini Saxena set to return to the Gurugram-based firm as its general counsel. Bar and Bench was the first to report this development. Saxena was the general counsel, or the top legal official, at Pine Labs between 2019 and 2022, after which she had moved to crypto exchange startup CoinDCX as its legal head. Now she is set to join Pine Labs again.

Currently, Kush Mehra, chief business officer; Sumit Chopra, chief operating officer; and Navin Chandani, chief business officer of the issuing business, are a few of the key personnel at Pine Labs, which counts erstwhile PayU top executive Amrish Rau as its current chief executive officer.

The company filed its DRHP on June 27, seeking to raise Rs 2,600 crore through a fresh issue of shares and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 147.8 million shares. The company is looking for a valuation of $4.5 to $5 billion through the public issue. It counts the likes of Peak XV Partners, Mastercard, PayPal, and Actis among its major shareholders.