Indonesia's Go-Jek scales up with Series E round

The investment is structured as a Series E and a Series E-plus round, according to sources familiar with the situation, and it opened last year. KKR is among the existing investors that have re-upped. The PE firm first backed Go-Jek in mid-2016, leading a $550 million Series D round – at a post-money valuation of $1.2 billion – alongside Warburg Pincus, Farallon Capital, and Capital Group Private Markets.

Other groups contributing capital to the most recent round include Temasek Holdings, Tencent Holdings, Meituan-Dianping, JD.com and VC firm Shunwei Capital Partners. The involvement of the latter four investors underscores Chinese interest in backing start-ups elsewhere in Asia. Tencent was linked to Go-Jek as early as May 2017 regarding an investment in the company alongside JD.com.

In recent weeks, other groups have emerged as Go-Jek investors - to the point that the round has been described as on a "rolling close." Google said in January that it would back the company, while two domestic conglomerates, Djarum Group and Astra International were confirmed as investors earlier this month. Djarum, a tobacco maker that also controls Bank Central Asia (BCA), is participating through a subsidiary of GDP Venture, which focuses on early-stage investment.

“The company is at the forefront of Indonesia’s digital economy, and is led by a strong Indonesian management team. By collaborating with Go-Jek, Astra wishes to create value within its existing business, while also accelerating our digital initiatives,” Prijono Sugiarto, president director of Astra, said in a statement. Astra, Indonesia’s leading automotive distributor, is contributing $150 million.

Grab, a Southeast Asia-based ride-hailing platform that competes directly with Go-Jek in Indonesia, is in the process of raising what will reportedly be a $2.5 billion Series G round at a valuation of $6 billion. It is also lining up strategic backers, with Hyundai and Toyota participating alongside existing investors SoftBank and China’s Didi Chuxing.

Go-Jek takes its name from the ojek motorcycle taxis that are part of urban life in Indonesia. It started in 2011 as a call center-based business but re-launched as a mobile app three years later, around the time NSI Ventures took part in a Series A round. Northstar Group joined the Series B and C rounds, although the timing of these investments has not been disclosed. Other backers include Sequoia Capital India, DST Global, Rakuten Ventures, and Formation Group.

The company has expanded into numerous verticals and now has three divisions: Go-Jek for ride-hailing and an array of delivery services covering parcels, groceries, prepared meals, tickets, and medicines; Go-Life for online-to-offline local services such as home cleaning, auto repairs, and in-home massage and beauty services; and Go-Pay for payments.

The payments business has been highlighted by various investors as particularly attractive, given 96% of Indonesia’s population has no access to credit cards and nearly two-thirds lie outside the formal banking sector. Last year, Go-Jek acquired three local financial technology start-ups – an offline payments processor, an online payment gateway, and a community-based financial network – to strengthen Go-Pay as it moves beyond just serving the Go-Jek ecosystem.

The company’s app has been downloaded more than 70 million times in Indonesia and claims to have 15 million weekly active users. There are over one million registered drivers and 125,000 merchants on the platform, with in excess of 100 million transactions facilitated each month.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Expansion
• Technology
• Indonesia
• TMT
• Growth capital
• Tencent
• JD.com
• Meituan-Dianping
• Temasek Holdings
• Shunwei Capital Partners
• KKR
• Warburg Pincus Asia
• Transportation