Zipmex Gets Series B Funding More Than 585 Billion Rupiah

Thai crypto asset trading platform Zipmex announced the acquisition of series B funding of $41 million or equivalent to IDR 585 billion led by Bank of Ayudhya, the fifth largest bank in terms of Actioncalendar in that country. Other investors participating in this round are local media company Plan B Media Pcl and venture capital firm Master Ad Pcl.

Previously, the company announced Series A pendanaan funding $6 million led by Jump Capital earlier this year.

Quote from Reuters, the investment made the company's valuation soar to $52 million (of the total funding received). Zipmex will use this fresh fund to build its technology team, expanding its range of new products such as loans, payments and securities to expand its user base.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is the majority shareholder of 76,9% in Bank of Ayudhya (BAY). BAY's venture company, Krungsri Finnovate, has invested in a number of startups, one of which is Grab.

“This deal will give BAY greater exposure to the blockchain and digital asset ecosystem,” said Krungsri Finnovate Managing Director Sam Tansakul. "If we don't stay close, technology will move further and further away from the bank."

Zipmex CEO Marcus Lim said in the short term this ammunition will help the company double its users to one million in the next six months. Zipmex currently operates in four countries, namely Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Australia. More than half of its largest business comes from its home country, namely Thailand and about a fifth from Indonesia.

Zipmex Business in Indonesia

In Indonesia, Zipmex operates under the legal entity PT Zipmex Exchange Indonesia and is one of 13 companies registered with CoFTRA.

One of Zipmex's products is ZipLock, a staking service to lock assets for 45 days in the form of ZMT (Zipmex Token) owned by users. In return, users get interest up to 16% per year which is paid daily.

Another staking service is ZipUp which is an interest-bearing crypto asset deposit product that can be withdrawn at any time. The interest offered on digital assets stored is up to 8% per year and is compounding meaning interest is paid daily directly to the user's wallet.

Beyond that, Zipmex provides an asset trading platform for more than 100 crypto assets. Zipmex became technology partner for Pluang in providing Bitcoin and Etherium asset trading features in the application. The company also innovated by launching Z-Launch, Zips Marketplace, ZipNFT (Non-Fungible Tokens), ZipStocks, ZipSpend, and Ziplend.

In the midst of exploding new investor interest towards crypto assets in Indonesia, making the number now exceeds capital market investors. The Ministry of Trade noted that investors in this instrument reached 6,5 million people with a transaction value of IDR370 trillion until May 2021. Meanwhile, the number of SIDs reached 5,6 million investors as of June 2021, according to OJK data.

List of crypto platforms in Indonesia

Last June 2020, CoFTRA issued an announcement letter No.477.1/BAPPEBTI.4/PENG/06/2020 releasing a list of companies as potential physical traders of crypto assets. Here's the list: