Indonesia-based fintech startup Pluang has secured USD 3 million in its Series A funding round led by Gojek’s investment arm Go-Ventures, the company announced today.
Previously known as EmasDigi, the startup was founded in 2018 by Claudia Kolonas, Iwan Tjam, and former Tiket’s co-founder Natali Ardianto, who later stepped down to build another startup in the health tech sector.
The company started as a fintech platform specializing in digital micro-savings. It went through rebranding in June 2019 and changed its name into Pluang (which means opportunity in Indonesian), as it wanted to diversify its financial products in the platform beyond gold.
Nevertheless, gold investment is still Pluang’s main offering for now. It allows users to invest in gold starting from 0.01 grams, which is equivalent to roughly USD 0.50.
In its statement, Pluang said that it will utilize the fresh investment to launch more financial services, like US dollar savings and fixed return products. The firm will also improve its existing gold investment product and expand its distribution.
Go-Ventures believes in Pluang’s mission to create innovative and fully compliant micro-savings products for all Indonesians, according to Aditya Kumar, Go-Ventures VP of investment, who added that more than half of Indonesia’s population does not have bank accounts, and only a few people have access to formal investment and savings channels.
Prior to leading the investment round for Pluang, Go-Ventures recently invested USD 5 million in Indian cloud kitchen Rebel Foods in July 2019. It also co-led USD 35.5 million investment in Indian e-sport startup Mobile Premier League (MPL) earlier this year.
