Pluang Raises Additional Funding Worth 787 Billion Rupiah

Wealthtech platform Pluang has raised $55 million in funding, or the equivalent of IDR 787 billion, led by Accel, a global venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley.

As a continuation of the previously announced series B funding, Pluang has now pocketed a total funding of $110 million throughout 2021. Pluang will use this fresh fund to continue to democratize access to investment across various asset classes to all levels of society.

In addition to expanding access to investment in the country, Pluang also plans to use the funds to expand its business coverage to Southeast Asia. This expansion is in line with the company’s mission to empower and increase financial literacy and inclusion in the Asian region.

The company stated that with the additional funding, the Pluang team could accelerate the momentum and provide the tools, resources, knowledge and insights needed to enable more people to create long-term wealth.

“We are very pleased to have world-class investors like Accel, as well as our new investors, who are supporting Pluang to grow to the next level,” said Pluang Co-Founder Claudia Kolonas in an official statement.

Democratization Of Investment Access

Founded in 2019 by Claudia Kolonas and Richard Chua, Pluang got its start by providing access to gold investments. For approximately 3 years Pluang has had more than 4 million registered users in Indonesia and the number continues to grow rapidly.

Pluang managed to record a 22-fold growth in users who actively make transactions between January 2020 and November 2021.

In addition, they also recorded a 28.5-fold growth in users with active balances in the same period. The growth experienced by Pluang cannot be separated from the variety of product diversification available on its platform.

Starting from gold, capital markets, mutual funds, and recently added the Micro E-mini Nasdaq 100 Index Futures investment asset class. A derivative futures product that is traded on the Chicago Merchantile Exchange (CME).

In addition, their partnerships with some super apps in the Southeast Asia have also opened up wider access to investment for the public.

Several Pluang partners such as Gojek, DANA, Bukalapak, and Tokopedia. Starting this December, Pluang has officially appeared on the Tokopedia application as an alternative option to invest in gold.

Regarding the market segment, which is a novice investor, Claudia said that investment penetration in Indonesia. Which is still below 1 percent, indicates a huge opportunity in this sector.

Therefore, Pluang tries by all means to improve financial literacy and encourage democratization of investment access for all audiences.

“Financial literacy in the younger generation is one solution to overcome economic inequality in Indonesia. We hope to contribute to reducing this economic gap by providing access to products that were previously difficult to reach,” said Claudia in a virtual webinar held by Pluang (12/1).

In addition, in the near future Pluang will also launch the first investment product in Indonesia. That allows users to invest in US stocks starting from 0.1 units of shares.

Investments in the Wealthtech Sector

Global investors have also realized the size and potential of the digital economy market in Southeast Asia. The total investment disbursed to startups in Southeast Asia has reached about $8.2 billion in 2020.

Currently, the wealth tech sector takes part of the total investment with more than 10 million people have invested in Indonesia.

Claudia also said, “As the largest country in Southeast Asia, we are very proud to see rapid developments in the capital market and digital assets. Hopefully, Indonesia can become an example and an incubator for other countries in Southeast Asia to develop the wealthtechsector in their respective countries.”

In addition to Pluang, several platforms that provide similar services have also succeeded in obtaining funding throughout 2021.