Gotrade Receives Series A Funding of 222 Billion Rupiah

Investment application developer Gotrade announced the acquisition of funding worth $15.5 million or more than 222 billion Rupiah. The series A round was led by Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures. To date, the total funding that has been achieved by the company has reached $22.5 million or the equivalent of 322 billion Rupiah.

This round was attended by investors from various countries, such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group [Japan], BeeNext [Singapore], Kibo Ventures [Spain], Picus Capital [Germany], as well as previous investors including LocalGlobe [UK], Social Leverage [US] & Raptors [US].

The last $7 million funding round led by LocalGlobe took place in 2021. The funding was received after Gotrade launched and is by invitation only, generating 20% ​​weekly growth.

In its first year, the company claims to have grown organically and managed to amass more than 500,000 users from 140 countries with a total transaction of $400 million through 5 million trades.

Conveniences Offered by Gotrade

Founded in 2019 by Rohit Mulani, Norman Wanto, and David Grant in Singapore, Gotrade is here to offer you the convenience of trading stocks from the United States exchange. This app allows users to buy fractional shares on the NYSE and shares traded on the NASDAQ starting at $1.

In operation, the company does not charge commissions on their trades. However, his team admitted that they did not adopt collaborative practices by monetizing order flow payments.

Gotrade earns income by charging 0.50% to 1.20% in FX fees (depending on currency) when a user selects a local currency deposit which is then converted into US dollars for trading.

In addition, Gotrade also has a new subscription-based initiative called Gotrade Black with premium features such as candlestick charts, analyst ratings, target prices and risk measurement for $2 per month.

On its official website, it is explained that this recommendation was made by professional stock analysts from Goldman, JP Morgan, and many other world-class investment firms/institutions.

A portion of the capital raised will also be used to develop its team of 40 people and launch local versions of its products in various markets, starting with Southeast Asia.

Co-founder and CEO Rohit Mulani revealed that investment in Southeast Asia is still fairly dilapidated. There are more than 600 million people unable to access quality investment products at reasonable prices.

According to him, most of them are still subject to mutual funds with an expense ratio exceeding 5%, savings products such as gold with a 3% spread and many hidden costs throughout their portfolios.

“We believe investing should be fairer, and users shouldn’t have to incur these predatory costs,” he said.

Gotrade Indonesia

Some time before this funding was announced, the company had just launched a special product for the Indonesian people under the name Gotrade Indonesia in collaboration with Valbury Asia Futures (Valbury) as a local partner.

All trades carried out on Gotrade Indonesia are carried out under a contract between the user and Valbury. Furthermore, Gotrade products that target the global market will be referred to as Gotrade Global.

Along with the launch of Gotrade Indonesia, the company also announced that Andrew Haryono, owner of the Valbury Group, is a co-founder of the company.

Valbury Group is a financial conglomerate in Indonesia that has securities, derivatives and capital management products. Andrew has been involved since the start of the business in 2019 and has been instrumental in helping the company achieve success so far.

“With Valbury and the launch of Gotrade Indonesia, we were able to take our partnership to a new level and everyone felt it was time to recognize him for the important role he played in the company’s past and the role he will continue to play in the company’s future,” said Rohit.

Apart from Gotrade, several investment applications in Indonesia that have also raised funds over the past year include Pluang, Pintu, Bibit and Ajaib.