Indonesian Exchange Pintu Raises $113M to Be ‘Coinbase of Southeast Asia’

Overcoming recent headwinds in the crypto market, Indonesian cryptocurrency exchange and wallet Pintu announced today that it has raised $110 million in Series B funding from Lightspeed, Pantera Capital, Northstar Group, and Intudo Ventures.

Pintu says it will use the newly-raised funds to further develop its product offerings and expand its educational arm, Pintu Academy.

With an exchange, crypto wallet, and staking platform with its own token, the Pintu app has gone from zero to four million downloads in just two years, Eddy Chan, Founding Partner at Intudo, told Decrypt in an interview.

As a VC firm, Intudo is laser-focused on the Indonesian market. Chan is bullish on Pintu and Indonesia’s crypto economy despite the global market downturn in part because of what he calls a “very, very long-term view.”

Chan said he is a firm believer in Pintu founder and CEO Jeth Soetoyo, as well as Pintu’s user-friendly interfaces as well as its educational focus, saying the app could become “the Coinbase of Southeast Asia.”

He’s also bullish on crypto adoption in Indonesia specifically, and said that Indonesia’s fiat currency inflation, young demographics, rising middle class, growing population, and a national interest in cryptocurrency are why he’s optimistic on the future of crypto as a whole in the country.

Soetoyo has a similar view.

“Indonesia’s crypto market has demonstrated remarkable growth over the past year, fueled by regulatory encouragement and increased grassroots awareness,” Soetoyo said in a statement. “Crypto adoption in Indonesia is only in its beginning stages, and educating users on the fundamentals is critical to ensuring this growth continues in a healthy way.”

Interest in crypto has certainly increased in the country, with the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency reporting that the number of Indonesians trading crypto has doubled to more than 12 million traders in the past year.