Last 12 months noticed an enormous funding increase for Southeast Asian shopper funding apps and if pintus funding announcement right this moment is something to go by, that appears set to proceed. The cryptocurrency-focused app has raised a $113 million Series B from Intudo Ventures, Lightspeed, Northstart Group and Pantera Capital.
Launched in April 2020, Pintu payments itself as Indonesias main homegrown crypto property platform. This is the third spherical of funding the startup has landed in little over a 12 months. The first was a $6 million Series A introduced in May 2021, and the second was $35 million in Series A+ funding simply two months later. At the time, Pintu chief working officer Andrew Adjiputro advised TechCrunch that it raised an A+ as a substitute of transferring onto a Series B as a result of its give attention to product improvement and execution remained the identical.
Now 10 months later, Pintu chief advertising and marketing officer Timothius Martin tells TechCrunch that it has added extra tokens, making extra a complete of 66 out there, 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 share yield (APY) on chosen crypto property that are paid hourly with no lock-up interval. Users can top-up or withdraw their Earn pockets at any time.
According to information from the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (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. But since crypto asset possession nonetheless solely has a 4% penetration fee among the many inhabitants, Pintus staff 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 spend money on Bitcoin, Ethereum and different cryptocurrencies. It presently says over 4 million individuals have put in the app, up from 500,000 in May 2021. The app additionally has communities with a complete of 790,000 members throughout Telegram, Discord, Instagram and TikTok.
The firm 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 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 trading practices. It can even carry out extra hiring, having already doubled its staff to 200 in 2021.
The pandemic spurred curiosity in retail funding final 12 months, and because the pandemic subsidies, Martin stated we see that the market is extra mature now in comparison with final 12 months. Users are beginning to make funding choices based mostly 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 vital development in gaming and metaverse-related crypto property, as many imagine that these initiatives are contributing to the way forward for gaming.
In a ready assertion, Lightspeed associate Hemant Mohapatra stated, We are excited to proceed our journey with Pintu and to welcome our new associate Northstar Group. Since our funding in August final 12 months, Pintu has scaled 5x to develop into the countrys main retail centered crypto brokerage, and employed one of many strongest groups weve seen on this market. The crypto wave is coming into mainstream adoption globally and Pintu is constructing a generational firm on this class.
