NOBI, an Indonesia-based asset management platform for the crypto asset, announced Thursday a $4 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round led by AC Ventures, with participation from Appworks, Skystar Capital, Cakra Ventures, Global Founders Capital (GFC), and angel investors.
NOBI said in a statement the funding will be used to further enhance its product, grow its Honest Token (HNST) utility and expand the team.
Founded in 2018, NOBI is a crypto asset management platform that is managed and developed by PT Enkripsi Teknologi Handal, with a mission to make it easier for everyone to own and grow their crypto assets.
As a financial services company for crypto market investors, NOBI brings a mission to help casual investors earn on their crypto assets by providing services, such as staking, savings, and trading strategy. It allows clients to enjoy attractive yields while owning bitcoin, ethereum, and other top crypto assets. NOBI focuses on helping casual investors who want to diversify their wealth into crypto and non-traders who do not have the time to manage their assets actively, with no hidden fees and complexity.
“NOBI to the moon! This is a huge step for us. AC Ventures and the rest of our investors bring deep unrivaled experience in fintech, investment and crypto. This round of investment shows their trust and commitment to what we can do to make a difference as the crypto and financial space starts to merge,” said Lawrence Samantha, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NOBI.
With a total population of 274 million people, Indonesia accounts for more than 45 percent of the total population in South-East Asia. The country is estimated to have 66 percent of the underbanked/unbanked population, providing room for digital focus financial services. Due to the large market size, Indonesia has been established as a crucial market for crypto asset development.
According to the Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Board (BAPPEPTI) data, the number of crypto investors grew 2 times faster than stocks investors in 2021 to reach 11.2 million people despite the fluctuation in crypto price – thereby marking the beginning of the golden era in the crypto business. In addition, the value of crypto-asset trading transactions in Indonesia throughout 2021 has reached $61.4 billion, whereby compared to 2020, there was an increase in transaction value by 1,222 percent. Based on these statistics alone, it is evident that crypto assets have become one of Indonesia’s most sought-after investment categories.
“In line with the global trend, demand for crypto assets in Indonesia is rapidly growing. Domestic trading volume has increased over 10x to exceed $60 billion in 2021 through over 11 million user accounts. NOBI provides investors with a range of services from trading, fund investment as well as staking, which allows your coins to earn interest. NOBI’s user-friendly and intuitive platform makes it easy to start investing in cryptocurrency,” said Michael Soerijadji, Founder and Managing Partner of AC Ventures.
NOBI is led by Co-Founders Lawrence Samantha (Chief Executive Officer), Edy Senjaya (Chief Technology Officer), and Dionisius Evan Alam (Chief Product Officer). NOBI’s founders combined their entrepreneurial and operational expertise.
As a Chief Executive Officer, Lawrence is very knowledgeable and passionate about the cryptocurrency space. He started bitcoin mining in 2011 after he graduated from The Ohio State University before becoming a Co-Founder of a one-stop ticketing management platform, Loket.
Edy who has more than 20 years of experience in multinational companies truly believes in the web3 ecosystem. His love for cryptocurrency can be traced back to 2017 when he started operating a crypto mining operation, ran Bitharga – a crypto price monitoring tool and built various blockchain-based solutions using smart contracts.
Meanwhile, Dionisius, who also graduated from The Ohio State University, co-founded and advised various startups, from branding consultant, software agency, to digital saving and loan cooperative startup. He has 5+ years of futures, option, and crypto trading experience.
Currently, NOBI manages over IDR 1 trillion ($70.15 million) worth of crypto assets across all services and experienced tremendous growth with 15 times more active users in the last six months.
Looking ahead, the startup has plans to further enhance its product and to expand the team by doubling its employees to scale its operation.