SoftBank, Alibaba lead $1.1b round for Indonesia's Tokopedia

The investment is being called a Series G round and reportedly values the company at $7 billion. Additional participants include SoftBank Ventures Korea and unspecified existing investors. It follows a $1.1 billion round last year led by Alibaba. Previous backers also include Sequoia Capital India, SBI Investment, CyberAgent Ventures, and East Ventures.

Tokopedia, which was founded in 2009 as a consumer and merchant-facing marketplace, has steadily diversified into a number of ancillary fields largely related to online-to-offline business, including infrastructure-as-a-service and financial services. It will use the fresh capital to build out its ecosystem in the areas of commerce, logistics, order fulfillment, and payments.

This ecosystem is said to reach 93% of districts across 17,000 Indonesian islands. Tokopedia claims that its gross merchandise value has quadrupled in the past year and that 25% of its transactions are now same-day deliveries. Lydia Jett, a senior investor at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said the company has served “millions” of Indonesian small to medium-sized enterprises.

“Tokopedia already provides millions of consumers with access to more than 100 million products, and the company is well positioned to serve millions more as internet adoption continues to grow rapidly in the region,” Jett, said in a statement. “We believe in championing homegrown entrepreneurship and see a long runway for the company’s continued growth.”

To date, Indonesia has proven the only Southeast Asian jurisdiction capable supporting the creation of multiple technology giants. Other diversified new-economy companies valued at more than $1 billion in the country include ride-hailing app Go-Jek, travel search engine Traveloka, and online marketplace Bukalapak. Ride-hailing app Grab is based in Singapore but operates predominantly in Indonesia.

High valuations for these companies are often predicated on presumed future access to still untapped rural markets across Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia. However, scaling challenges related to infrastructure gaps and cultural issues around technology adoption have curbed these expansion ambitions. It is estimated that only 10 million Indonesians out of a total population of 260 million are willing and able to market purchases online.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Technology
• Consumer
• Expansion
• Indonesia
• Softbank
• SOFTBANK Ventures Korea
• Alibaba Group
• e-commerce
• TMT
• Growth capital