Indonesia crypto trading app
Last year saw a huge funding boom for Southeast Asian consumer investment apps and if Pintu’s funding announcement today is anything to go by, that looks set to continue. The cryptocurrency-focused app has raised a $113 million Series B from Intudo Ventures, Lightspeed, Northstar Group and Pantera Capital.
Launched in April 2020, Pintu bills itself as “Indonesia’s leading homegrown crypto assets platform.” This is the third round of funding the startup has landed in little over a year. The first was a $6 million Series A announced in May 2021 and the second was $35 million in Series A+ funding just two months later. At the time, Pintu chief operating officer Andrew Adjiputro told TechCrunch that it raised an A+ instead of moving onto a Series B because its focus on product development and execution remained the same.
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Now 10 months later, Pintu chief marketing officer Timothius Martin tells TechCrunch that it has added more tokens, making a total of 66 available, with more added each month. The app also added additional payment channel integrations; Pintu Staking, which lets users stake their Pintu Token; and Pintu Earn, a product that enables them to earn an up to a 15% annual percentage yield (APY) on selected crypto assets that are paid hourly with no lock-up period. Users can top up or withdraw their Earn wallet at any time.
According to data from the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappepti), the number of crypto investors in Indonesia doubled over the past year to more than 12 million traders, compared to 7 million domestic public equity investors. But since crypto asset ownership still only has a 4% penetration rate among the population, Pintu’s team notes that it has plenty of room to grow. Pintu is registered and licensed by Bappepti.
The app is geared toward first-time cryptocurrency investors, primarily Gen Z and millennials with features like Pintu Academy, an educational program. It lets them invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. It currently says over four million people have installed the app, up from 500,000 in May 2021. The app also has communities with a total of 790,000 members across Telegram, Discord, Instagram and TikTok.
The company will use its latest funding, which brings its total raised to about $156 million, to add more tokens and supported blockchains and new products. It plans to expand its Pintu Academy program to, as it they put it, “help traders understand both the opportunities and risks of crypto investing and promote healthier and sustainable trading practices.” It will also perform additional hiring, having already doubled its team to 200 in 2021.
Indonesia crypto trading app