Pillow
The CEO promised investors a refund as the crypto-savings app closed
A Singapore-based app for emerging-market users to save in dollar stablecoins and invest in bitcoin, ether and other crypto assets.
- Capital raised (announced)
- Estimated
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
- Reported users
Company-reported users in October 2022, across more than 60 countries; not independently counted active users.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | 2022 | ||
| Series A | 2022 |
|
Announced is what was said at the time. Cash actually received is rarely disclosed and is not assumed to match.
People
| Name | Role | Period | Now | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arindam Roy | — | Head of product, Scapia (January 2025 to August 2026) | Oct 2026 | |
| Rajath KM | — | Chief Business Officer, KernelDAO (since November 2025) | Oct 2026 | |
| Kartik Mishra | — | Co-Founder, M (since January 2026) | Oct 2026 |
Timeline
2021
Started by Arindam Roy, Rajath KM and Kartik Mishra.
10 February 2022
The app offered yield on stablecoins, Bitcoin and Ether through curated decentralized-finance strategies.
13 October 2022
TechCrunch reported company growth in Nigeria, Ghana and Vietnam. Users could move local currency into and out of crypto; the report date does not establish when every market opened.
23 June 2023
An in-app notice said Pillow would stop providing its services because of regulatory uncertainty and would close on 31 July. Interest and rewards stopped immediately.
7 July 2023
The last day users could withdraw to a bank account, per the notice.
31 July 2023
The last day for crypto withdrawals, and the date given for the app's removal from the app stores.
How it ended
In June 2023 Pillow told its users in an in-app notice that it would stop providing its services because of regulatory uncertainty and would close on 31 July 2023. Its chief executive said the co-founders had decided to shut the company down and return about 80% of the capital raised to investors.
Still alive
Open spot
Pillow is gone. Is your crypto lender still running?
Spotlight your project here.
Sources
11 sources behind this page.
- 1Crypto Startup, Pillow, Shutting Down One Year After Entry into Ghana and Nigeria · BitKE
- 2Pillow Raises $3M Seed Round to Scale Crypto Investing App · Crowdfund Insider · Feb 2022
- 3Accel-Backed Crypto Platform Pillow To Shut Operations Due To Regulatory Uncertainties · Inc42 · Jun 2023
- 4Crypto Investment Platform Pillow Raises $18 Mn In Funding From Accel, Others · Inc42 · Oct 2022
- 5LinkedIn profile of Arindam Roy · LinkedIn (self-published profile, viewed by a person) · user-editable
- 6LinkedIn profile of Kartik Mishra · LinkedIn (self-published profile, viewed by a person) · user-editable
- 7LinkedIn profile of Rajath KM · LinkedIn (self-published profile, viewed by a person) · user-editable
- 8Crypto startup Pillow raises $18M to make investments easier · SiliconANGLE · Oct 2022
- 9Regulatory Woes Lead Crypto Startup Pillow to Shut Down Operations · The Crypto Times · Jun 2023
- 10X account lookup: @crosschainyoda · twitterapi.io (X data provider)
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- 11X post search: @PillowFund posts naming its founders (2022) · twitterapi.io (X data provider)
Every figure above is clickable and opens the sources behind it. Copies were stored when each source was read, so a citation still resolves after the page it came from is gone.