Final yr noticed an enormous funding increase for Southeast Asian shopper funding apps and if Pintu’s funding announcement immediately is something to go by, that appears set to proceed. The cryptocurrency-focused app has raised a $113 million Sequence B from Intudo Ventures, Lightspeed, Northstart Group and Pantera Capital.
Launched in April 2020, Pintu payments itself as “Indonesia’s main homegrown crypto property platform.” That is the third spherical of funding the startup has landed in little over a yr. The primary was a $6 million Sequence A introduced in Might 2021, and the second was $35 million in Sequence A+ funding simply two months later. On the time, Pintu chief working officer Andrew Adjiputro instructed Avisionews that it raised an A+ as a substitute of shifting onto a Sequence B as a result of its give attention to product improvement and execution remained the identical.
Now 10 months later, Pintu chief advertising officer Timothius Martin tells Avisionews that it has added extra tokens, making extra a complete of 66 accessible, with extra added every month. The app additionally added extra fee channel integrations; Pintu Staking, which lets customers stake their Pintu Token; and Pintu Earn, a product that allows them to earn an as much as a 15% annual proportion yield (APY) on chosen crypto property that are paid hourly with no lock-up interval. Customers can top-up or withdraw their Earn pockets at any time.
In accordance with knowledge from the Indonesian Commodity Futures Buying and selling Regulatory Company (Bappepti), the variety of crypto traders in Indonesia doubled over the previous yr to greater than 12 million merchants, in comparison with 7 million home public fairness traders. However since crypto asset possession nonetheless solely has a 4% penetration charge among the many inhabitants, Pintu’s group notes that it has loads of room to develop. Pintu is registered and licensed by Bappepti.
The app is geared towards first-time cryptocurrency traders, primarily Gen Z and millennials with options like Pintu Academy, an academic program. It lets them spend money on Bitcoin, Ethereum and different cryptocurrencies. It at the moment says over 4 million folks have put in the app, up from 500,000 in Might 2021. The app additionally has communities with a complete of 790,000 members throughout Telegram, Discord, Instagram and TikTok.
The corporate will use its newest funding, which brings its complete raised to about $156 million, so as to add extra tokens and supported blockchains and new merchandise. It plans to develop its Pintu Academy program to, because it they put it, “assist merchants perceive each the alternatives and dangers of crypto investing and promote more healthy and sustainable buying and selling practices.” It’s going to additionally carry out extra hiring, having already doubled its group to 200 in 2021.
The pandemic spurred curiosity in retail funding final yr, and because the pandemic subsides, Martin stated “we see that the market is extra mature now in comparison with final yr. Customers are beginning to make funding choices primarily based on the use-cases of the crypto property. For instance, gaming is a giant factor in Indonesia with over 100 million avid gamers within the nation. This spurs important development in gaming and metaverse-related crypto property, as many consider that these initiatives are contributing to the way forward for gaming.”
In a ready assertion, Lightspeed accomplice Hemant Mohapatra stated, “We’re excited to proceed our journey with Pintu and to welcome our new accomplice Northstar Group. Since our funding in August final yr, Pintu has scaled 5x to turn into the nation’s main retail centered crypto brokerage, and employed one of many strongest groups we’ve seen on this market. The crypto wave is getting into mainstream adoption globally and Pintu is constructing a generational firm on this class.”
