We’re delighted to have advised Fave, the Malaysia-based fintech platform providing QR payments and loyalty cashback to restaurants and retailers, on its acquisition by Pine Labs, the Indian Sequoia-backed payment and merchants platform.

The deal is valued at more than US$45 million. Pine Labs intends to roll out the Fave payments app in India across a network of 500,000 merchants on its platform.

As part of the deal, Fave’s founders Joel Neoh and Yeoh Chen Chow will continue to lead the consumer platform for the group across Asia. There are also plans to hire over 100 new employees across both Southeast Asia and India.

Fave started out in 2015 as fitness sharing platform KFit before stepping into multi-category local commerce with the launch of Fave.

As Fave took on speed, Kindrik advised the business on several funding rounds as well as its acquisitions of Groupon’s businesses in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in 2016 and 2017.

In 2020, Fave entered into a strategic partnership with Pine Labs where Fave’s QR code was integrated with Pine Lab’s terminals, enabling an integrated platform for acceptance and loyalty cashback solutions.

Fave co-founder Chen Chow Yeoh says “Lee Bagshaw and Kindrik worked with us through all our funding rounds, our acquisition of Groupon companies and now our exit. We’re thankful for their expertise and guidance in the VC and tech M&A space.”

Partner Lee Bagshaw says, “It’s been a six year journey working with Joel and Chen Chow starting when the business was trading as KFit. We’re pleased to have watched Fave grow and play a role of the digital transformation of payments across Southeast Asia. We wish them the best of luck on their continued journey with Pine Labs.”