Pintu receives $35M in new funding from Lightspeed two months after it had its Series A.Two months after its last funding announcement Pintu, an Indonesian crypto assets platform, has closed a $35 Million Series A+. Lightspeed Ventures led the new round, which included participation from returning investors such as Alameda Ventures.Intudo, Pantera Ventures and Coinbase Ventures announced Pintus' previous funding in May. It was a $6 million Series A. Pintu is the newest investment app in Southeast Asia that has raised a large follow-on round. This is due to growing interest in retail investing. Bibit, Ajaib, and Syfe are other examples.Pintus chief operating office Andrew Adjiputro told TechCrunch that Pintu raised an A+ Series, rather than a Series A extension, Series B or Series C, as its focus is still on product development and execution. He said that Coinbase's IPO and the influx of new users make it a good time to raise a bigger round to fund faster growth. We have the momentum to launch new products, and capture the market.Pintu will use its Series A+ to hire aggressively for all its employees and roll out new products and features. Pintu reports that app downloads increased by 3.5x due to organic growth while active traders on its platform increased by 4x.The platform currently allows trades in 16 cryptocurrencies. Plans are to expand the range of coins and NFT tokens.Adjiputro stated that Coinbase's April successful initial public offering helped to fuel interest in crypto trading among investors, particularly first-timers.Adjiputro said that they became curious about the business and that education is its bread and butter. Our platform offers a lot of education and attracts new investors who are eager to learn more.Although the rate of retail investments in Indonesia is still very low, it is growing rapidly due to a combination of factors including the desire of people to diversify their assets and increase their wealth during the pandemic.Adjiputro stated that Pintus was the first app to allow users to invest instead of stock. Recently, the company surveyed its users to find out their top five investment categories. Crypto was ranked third behind digital gold and mutual funds, while stocks were ranked fourth.Figures released by the Indonesian Ministry of Trade show that crypto is preferred to stocks. They also showed that there were more than 6.6 million crypto investors in Indonesia as of June 2021. This is almost triple the number of public equity investors.Pintu is a licensed cryptocurrency broker under the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency. This broker is more appealing to new investors because it has a low minimum investment rate at 11,000 IDR or 75cs USD.Timothius Martin was the chief marketing officer of the company and was a first-time investor at the time he began using Pintu. TechCrunch spoke with Martin about the company's accessibility. It is easy to invest and withdraw funds. We are at the stage in Indonesia where many people are interested in crypto and want to invest. However, there aren't many options that they can understand.Pintu doesn't encourage users to invest when they open the app for first time. Instead, it presents educational materials. Pintu Academy is one of its many features. It offers a variety of videos and articles. Pintus' target audience is millennials but it also attracts older demographics such as those who have previously traded stocks and want to learn more about crypto trading.Adjiputro stated that Pintus' focus on education is what distinguishes it from other Indonesian crypto platforms such as Indodax or Tokocrypto.The company is preparing to launch new features such as Pintu Earn, which allows users to earn interest on a variety crypto assets. Also, the company integrates e-wallets for easy deposits and withdrawals.It also determines which coins will be added next. Martin stated that we are very selective about the coins we add to this platform. This is a platform for beginners and first-time investors.The criteria used by Pintus to determine new coins are those that have a high market capital, which means they are already popular. It also considers the longevity of a coin and its liquidity.Pintu will be focusing on Indonesian expansion before expanding into other Southeast Asian markets.Hemant Mohapatra, Lightspeed partner, stated that Lightspeed had invested in more than 17 blockchain and crypto companies worldwide, including FTX and Blockchain.com. Offchain Labs is another example. We believe that crypto is poised to be a major asset class worldwide and will lead to large companies becoming regional leaders. Pintu has built the best market brand, the best user experience, and hands down the strongest team we've seen in this market.
