Merchant platform Pine Labs is set to go public and has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI. A closer look at the filing reveals compensation, equity holdings, and stock option grants for the fintech company’s top leadership. The company recently reported nine months of profitability for the first time.
B. Amrish Rau, Chairman, Managing Director, and Chief Executive Officer of Pine Labs, drew a base salary of Rs 3.8 crore from Pine Labs India, along with an annual incentive of Rs 1.9 crore, taking his domestic gross salary to Rs 5.8 crore. However, Rau’s total compensation rose to Rs 9.5 crore after including Rs 3.76 crore received from Pine Labs’ Singapore entities.
Rau also received 2.3 crore stock options between January and June 2025—the largest individual allocation under the ESOP 2025 plan, making him the highest beneficiary of stock-based compensation in the lead-up to the IPO.
Kush Mehra, Executive Director and President of Digital Infrastructure and Transaction Platform, earned a basic salary of Rs 3 crore and received a performance-linked bonus of Rs 2.3 crore for FY2024, which was paid in FY2025.
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Departing CFO Marc Kay Mathenz, whose last working day is expected in August 2025, was granted 8,42,044 stock options during the same period. Mehra received 5,00,000 options, while Anand Raisinghani, who heads Pine Labs’ API-led fintech unit Setu, was granted 4,17,396 options.
In addition to ESOPs, Pine Labs’ leadership team holds significant direct equity stakes. Rau commands the largest individual shareholding with 1.77 crore equity shares and 72 lakh vested options, representing a 2.35% stake in the company on a fully diluted basis before the IPO.
Chief Technology Officer Sanjeev Kumar ranks second, holding 1.07 crore equity shares or 1.01% of the pre-offer fully diluted capital, though he does not have any listed vested stock options.
Mehra ranks third with 40.7 lakh equity shares and 4.97 lakh vested options, amounting to a 0.43% fully diluted stake.
