Indonesia's Gojek, Tokopedia merge as GoTo
Gojek and Tokopedia, two of Indonesia’s best-funded technology start-ups, have completed a merger, forming what they claim is the largest mobile on-demand services and payments platform in Southeast Asia.
The combined business – known as GoTo – brings together Gojek’s super app offering, which started with ride-hailing but now encompasses multiple forms of transportation as well as food delivery, logistics, and finance, with Tokopedia’s country-leading e-commerce marketplace and associated financial technology services. Total group gross transaction value exceeded $22 billion in 2020, with over 1.8 billion transactions completed.
The merger comes a few weeks after Grab, Gojek’s closest competitor in Southeast Asia, agreed to go public in the US through a merger with a special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC) at an enterprise valuation of $30.4 billion. Several sources have previously said they expected a Gojek-Tokopedia merger to be followed quickly by an IPO filing.
According to a statement, the deal is backed by the likes of Alibaba Group, Astra International, BlackRock, Capital Group, DST Global, Facebook, Google, JD.com, KKR, Northstar Group, Pacific Century Group, PayPal, Provident Capital, Sequoia Capital India, SoftBank Vision Fund, Telkomsel, Temasek Holdings, Tencent Holdings, Visa, and Warburg Pincus.
Gojek launched its Series F round in 2019 with a view to raising around $2 billion at a valuation of $9-10 billion, nearly double the Series E valuation. The first phase of $1 billion was completed shortly thereafter, featuring a string of returning investors such as Google, JD.com, and Tencent. Various other groups subsequently joined the round, with Facebook and PayPal the most recent confirmed participants in June of last year.
Gojek 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 Openspace Ventures took part in a Series A round. Northstar joined the Series B and C rounds, with KKR and Warburg Pincus joining the Series D in 2016. At the time, Gojek was valued at $1.2 billion. Cumulative funding to date is said to exceed $5 billion.
Tokopedia was founded in 2009 and has completed at least seven funding rounds, raising more than $2.5 billion. Notably, SoftBank and Sequoia provided $100 million in funding in 2014 and Alibaba Group led a $1.1 billion round in 2017. A year later, SoftBank Vision Fund and Alibaba returned with a $1.1 billion round at a reported valuation of $7 billion.
The GoTo platform – which has over 100 million monthly active users (MAUs), a two million-strong driver fleet, and 11 million merchant partners – will continue to focus on its core Southeast Asian markets. Initiatives include making same-day e-commerce delivery the norm in Indonesia, deepening penetration of underserved segments in the country, where 140 million people have little or no access to financial services, and further developing the payments and financial services offering.
The statement does not go into specifics on payments, beyond saying that GoTo Financial will act as a holding entity for GoPay, Gojek’s digital payments business, and the combined entity’s merchant and financial services offerings. Tokopedia has been a longstanding user of Grab’s rival Ovo offering and held a stake in the business.
Gojek and Tokopedia will remain standalone brands under the GoTo umbrella. Andre Soelistyo, a former Northstar executive who has worked for Gojek since 2015, will be CEO of GoTo, with Tokopedia’s Patrick Cao serving as president. Kevin Aluwi and William Tanuwijaya will remain CEOs of Gojek and Tokopedia, respectively. Soelistyo will also lead GoTo Financial.
“GoTo is unique, strategic and powerful – there is no modern internet company, in any part the world that I’m aware of, that has such deep ownership of so many categories at the same time,” said Shailendra Singh, a managing director at Sequoia, an early investor in Gojek as well as Tokopedia.
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