Indonesia-based crypto-assets exchange company Pintu banked $6m to support its mission to drive industry adoption.
The Series A funding round was led by major global crypto investors including Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures and Intudo Ventures. Other inventors like Alameda Ventures, Blockchain Ventures and Castle Island Ventures also participated in the round.
The company’s new funding will be further invested into marketing, hiring and product development to attract more newcomers to the industry.
Founded in 2020 by Jeth Soetoyo, Pintu is a licensed cryptocurrency company in Indonesia, regulated by the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency, or Bappepti. The exchange is registered under Bappebti and the Ministry of Communication and Informatics as a licensed crypto broker.
Pintu COO Andrew Adjiputro noted that the funding will help the firm to focus on the mass market and reach first-time crypto users, which sets it apart from other major Indonesian crypto exchanges like Indodax and Tokocrypto. He said that many Indonesian retail traders view crypto as an alternative investment asset class with most of the investors being aged between 20 and 35 years old.
He added, “For most Indonesians, the concept of investing and trading is new because historically penetration in these categories have been so low. So what we’re seeing is also the opportunity to help Indonesians understand the concept of investing/trading and along the way leapfrog investments into other asset classes,” the COO stated.
It’s important to note that Indonesia has been keeping cryptocurrency trading legal despite putting a blanket ban on crypto payments back in 2017. Interest in capital investment has continued to soar with investment apps like Ajaib, Bibit and Pluang, all recently raising funding. According to Pintu’s internal estimates, last year Indonesia processed $10bn in crypto-asset transactions, mostly through retail investors.
Commenting on the round, Soetoyo said “We are witnessing immense crypto assets volume growth within less than a year of our app launch in April 2020. Frankly, this is just the tip of the iceberg given the fact that the Indonesian crypto assets industry is still five years behind the US. We have a mission to exponentially grow market adoption via crypto assets literacy, best-in-class user experience, and customer trust. In terms of next steps, our focus lies on expanding our token offerings, features, and product with a key focus on making our customers happy.”
Before Pintu, Soetoyo founded PT Rupiah Token Indonesia, which developed a stablecoin called Rupiah Token or IDRT. The price of the Ethereum-based token is pegged 1:1 to the rupiah, Indonesia’s currency. Other than more volatile cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, stablecoins offer certain stability and are backed by a reserve asset.
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