Gotrade Receives Series A Funding of 222 Billion Rupiah, Increases Market Penetration in Southeast Asia

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 equivalent to 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].

Last funding round worth $7 million led by LocalGlobe takes place in 2021. The funding is received after Gotrade is launched and can only be used by invitation (by invitation only), resulting in 20% week-over-week growth.

In its first year, the company claims to have grown organically and managed to collect more than 500.000 users from 140 countries with total transactions reaching $400 million through 5 million trade.

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

In operating, the company does not charge commissions on trade they. However, his team admitted to not adopting the collaborative practice of monetizing payments order flow. Gotrade earns revenue 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 initiative based on subscription called Gotrade Black with premium features like graphics candlestick, analyst rating, target price, and risk measurement of $2 per month. In official page, explained that these recommendations were 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 spread of 3% 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 with the name Gotrade Indonesia cooperates 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 one of the company's founders. 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 us achieve our 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, Seeds and Magic.

Take the quiz and challenge #NgabubureaDS on Instagram @dailysocial.id during the month of Ramadan, which will distribute prizes every week in the form of takjil, hampers to subscriptions to DailySocial.id premium content for FREE. Check out more info HERE and keep an eye on our weekly quiz HERE.