Pine Labs appoints Nitish Asthana as President & COO

Pine Labs,one of Asia’s leading merchant commerce platforms today announced the appointment of Nitish Asthana as the President & Chief Operating Officer (COO). Joining the company’s leadership team, Nitish will focus on accelerating the company’s efforts towards technology innovation and increasing digital payment acceptance among merchants across India and Southeast Asia.

With more than two decades of experience in senior executive roles across payments, fintech and finance areas, prior to joining Pine Labs, Nitish was Managing Director, India and Sri Lanka First Data Corp, Fiserv. There he led businesses across merchant payments, merchant acquiring services, cards issuing processing and banking technology solutions. Previously, he served as the APAC head of First Data’s merchant payments business across 9 countries besides leading the start-up of two large life insurance companies – Bharti AXA Life and Aviva, as a founding leader at both JV firms. His early career was with Standard Chartered and Citibank in their respective consumer banking units.

Commenting on his appointment, B Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs, said, “Nitish brings with him a wealth of experience in the payment and fintech space. He is one of the classic successful executives, who is cut out for an entrepreneurial journey. At Pine Labs, we are on a mission to re-define merchant payments and commerce and Nitish’s diverse knowledge and insights will play a pivotal role in accelerating innovation within the company and ensure operational excellence. We are excited to welcome Nitish to the Pine Labs family.”

Nitish Asthana, President & COO, Pine Labs, said, “I am very excited to join Pine Labs at a time when the company is witnessing tremendous growth in India and beginning to expand its footprint to newer markets, especially in Southeast Asia. With a spike in digital payments adoption post-COVID-19, the environment is right to take innovative fintech products to the remotest corners of the country and accelerate the Digital India vision. I am confident that Pine Labs is well placed to drive this transformation and I look forward to strengthening the credibility and trustworthiness amongst all the stakeholders in the ecosystem.”

Pine Labs today serves more than 1,50,000 merchants in 3,700 cities with over 4,50,000 merchant touchpoints. The company recently invested in Fave, a leading fintech company in Southeast Asia.