Final 12 months saw a huge funding boom for Southeast Asian consumer investment apps and if Pintu’s funding announcement at this time 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, Northstar 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 12 months. The primary was a $6 million Series A announced in May 2021 and the second was $35 million in Series A+ funding just two months later. On the time, Pintu chief working officer Andrew Adjiputro instructed TechCrunch that it raised an A+ as an alternative of shifting onto a Sequence B as a result of its deal with product improvement and execution remained the identical.
Now 10 months later, Pintu chief advertising officer Timothius Martin tells TechCrunch that it has added extra tokens, making a complete of 66 obtainable, with extra added every month. The app additionally added extra cost 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 share yield (APY) on chosen crypto property which might be paid hourly with no lock-up interval. Customers can prime up or withdraw their Earn pockets at any time.
Based on knowledge from the Indonesian Commodity Futures Buying and selling Regulatory Company (Bappepti), the variety of crypto buyers in Indonesia doubled over the previous 12 months to greater than 12 million merchants, in comparison with 7 million home public fairness buyers. However since crypto asset possession nonetheless solely has a 4% penetration price 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 buyers, primarily Gen Z and millennials with options like Pintu Academy, an academic program. It lets them put money into Bitcoin, Ethereum and different cryptocurrencies. It at present 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 whole raised to about $156 million, so as to add extra tokens and supported blockchains and new merchandise. It plans to increase 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 would additionally carry out extra hiring, having already doubled its group to 200 in 2021.
The pandemic spurred curiosity in retail funding final 12 months, and because the pandemic subsides, Martin stated “we see that the market is extra mature now in comparison with final 12 months. Customers are beginning to make funding selections based mostly on the use instances of the crypto property. For instance, gaming is a giant factor in Indonesia with over 100 million players within the nation. This spurs vital development in gaming and metaverse-related crypto property, as many imagine that these tasks are contributing to the way forward for gaming.”
In a ready assertion, Lightspeed companion Hemant Mohapatra stated:
We’re excited to proceed our journey with Pintu and to welcome our new companion Northstar Group. Since our funding in August final 12 months, Pintu has scaled 5x to change 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 coming into mainstream adoption globally and Pintu is constructing a generational firm on this class.
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