Last year witnessed a massive funding boom for consumer investment apps in Southeast Asia and if PintuToday’s funding announcement is that whatever happens, looks set to continue. The crypto-focused app has raised $113 million in Series B from Intudo Ventures, Lightspeed, Northstart Group, and Pantera Capital.
Launched in April 2020, Pintu bills itself as “Indonesia’s leading homegrown crypto asset platform.” This is the third round of funding the startup has achieved in over a year. The first is a $6 million Series A announced in May 2021and collect two was $35 million in Series A+ funding just two months later. At the time, Pintu’s chief executive officer, Andrew Adjiputro, told TechCrunch that it had raised an A+ instead of moving to Series B because its focus on product development and execution remained the same.
Now 10 months later, Pintu’s chief marketing officer, Timothius Martin, tells TechCrunch that they have added more tokens, making for a total of 66 tokens available, and more being added every month. The app also adds additional payment channel integration; Pintu Staking, which allows users to stake their Pintu Tokens; and Pintu Earn, a product that allows them to earn an annual percentage return (APY) of up to 15% on select crypto assets that are paid out hourly with no lockdown period. Users can deposit or withdraw their Earn wallet at any time.
According to data from the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Authority (Bappepti), the number of crypto investors in Indonesia has doubled in the past year to more than 12 million traders, compared with 7 million. domestic public equity. But since crypto asset ownership still only has a penetration rate of 4% in the population, Pintu’s team notes that it has a lot of room to grow. Pintu is registered and licensed by Bappepti.
The app is geared towards first-time crypto investors, mainly Gen Z and millennials, with features like Pintu Academy, an educational program. It allows them to invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. It now says more than four million people have installed the app, up from 500,000 in May 2021. The app also has a community with a total of 790,000 members on Telegram, Discord, Instagram, and TikTok.
The company will use its latest funding, bringing the total raised to approximately $156 million, to add more tokens and supported blockchains and new products. It plans to expand its Pintu Academy program, which, as they put it, “helps traders understand both the opportunities and risks of cryptocurrency investing and promotes healthy trading methods and lasting”. It will also do additional recruiting, having doubled its team to 200 by 2021.
The pandemic spurred retail investment interest last year, and as the pandemic subsides, Martin said, “we see that the market is more mature now than it was last year. Users are starting to make investment decisions based on the use cases of crypto assets. For example, gaming is an important thing in Indonesia with more than 100 million gamers in the country. This drives significant growth in the game and crypto assets associated with the metaverse, as many believe these projects are contributing to the future of the game. ”
In a prepared statement, Lightspeed partner Hemant Mohapatra said, “We are delighted to continue our journey with Pintu and welcome our new partner Northstar Group. Since our investment last August, Pintu has scaled 5x to become the country’s leading retail-focused crypto broker and hired one of the strongest teams that we can handle. I have seen in this market. The wave of cryptocurrencies is gradually gaining widespread global adoption and Pintu is building a generational company in this area. ”
