Indonesian wealthtech startup Pluang closes $55m funding round

Pluang, a disruptive wealth tech company based in Indonesia, is democratising access for Indonesian retail investors to grow their wealth via its proprietary digital savings and investing products.

Now, the startup announced the final close of its latest funding round at $55 million, led by Square Peg and participated by SIG, UOB Venture Management, and existing investors Go-Ventures and Openspace Ventures.

Pluang first raised $20 million in March for the said round. It raised an additional $35 million before the final close.

In a statement, the company said it will use the fresh funding to allow Pluang to accelerate proprietary products to market for its growing customer base and hire best-in-class talent.

“We have been fortunate to double down on Pluang in every funding round making it one of our core portfolio holdings. We continue to be impressed by Pluang’s product innovation, best-in-class unit economics, and growth,” said Aditya Kamath, partner at Go-Ventures.

Currently, Pluang offers Indonesian retail investors the ability to invest in gold, equity indices, mutual funds, and cryptocurrencies. Amongst all wealth-tech start-ups in Indonesia, Pluang said it offers the broadest suite of asset classes.

It allows users to make micro-savings and micro-investing contributions (from as low as ~$0.50) across asset classes, all within one app, ensuring an easy and frictionless experience.

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“Diversification is key to reducing risk for users when first learning to invest, and Pluang is at the forefront of building a stronger foundation for more investors,” the startup said.

Pluang’s founders, Claudia Kolonas and Richard Chua, were inspired to start the company by a Harvard Business School class called Business at the Base of the Pyramid, which they attended while doing their MBA degree.

Kolonas is a veteran of the financial services industry in Indonesia, and Chua is a serial entrepreneur in the education space, with prior experience at Google and Bain.

Since its creation in 2019, Pluang has amassed almost 3 million registered users while remaining incredibly capital efficient, with less than $3 million of marketing spend to date.