Bukalapak gains 25% on debut after $1.5b Indonesia IPO

The company, which counts 500 Startups, GIC, and Microsoft among its investors, sold approximately 25.8 billion shares for IDR850 apiece, according to a filing. The stock was soon suspended from trading at IDR1,060 on August 6, having posted the maximum permitted single-day gain of 25%. It gives Bukalapak a market capitalization of IDR109.2 trillion ($7.5 billion).

The listing adds to a string of proposed liquidity events for investors in Southeast Asia. Grab, PropertyGuru, and FinAccel have all agreed to merge with US-listed special purpose acquisition vehicles (SPAC). Shane Chesson, a partner at Openspace Ventures, recently told AVCJ that he expected a wave of start-ups to test Indonesia’s public markets in the wake of Bukalapak’s listing. Openspace is an investor in GoTo, which has been tipped as an IPO candidate.

AVCJ Research has records of only 15 PE-backed offerings on the Indonesian bourse in the past 15 years, led by Adaro Energy at $1.35 billion in 2008. However, companies often seek a small initial public free float because of limited liquidity and raise larger amounts of capital when foreign institutional investors are ready to come in.

The first local listing by a technology start-up came in 2018, when online-to-offline (O2O) e-commerce kiosk operator Kioson raised IDR45 billion ($3.4 million). There were no VC investors. It was followed by M Cash, a similar O2O e-commerce operator, which raised IDR300 billion.

Bukalapak is said to be Indonesia’s fourth-largest e-commerce platform after SEA-owned Shopee, Tokopedia, and Alibaba Group-owned Lazada. Tokopedia recently merged with Gojek – a platform offering mobility, delivery, logistics, and financial service – to form GoTo.

Established in 2010, Bukalapak helps MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) – typically traditional family-owned businesses known as warungs – go online. It had 104.9 million registered users as of December and achieved a total processing value (TPV) of $6 billion in 2020, of which about 70% comes from transactions outside tier-one cities. Revenue for 2020 was $95.8 million.

Bukalapak launched Mitra Bukalapak, a series of membership-based O2O programs that offer financing and supply chain solutions, in 2017. There were 6.9 million members as of December and together they accounted for 27% of TPV in 2020. The company is pushing deeper into financial services, launching a B2B procurement platform in 2019 and a digital mutual fund platform last year.

Bukalapak has raised approximately $300 million in private funding, AVCJ Research’s records show, although the sizes of most rounds were not disclosed. In addition to 500 Startups, GIC and Microsoft, backers include Gree Ventures, IMJ Investment Partners, Mirae Asset Global Investments, Naver Corporation, SC Ventures, Emtek Group, and BRI Ventures.

The filing also mentions BonAngels Venture Partners, Mandiri Capital, Genting Ventures, and UBS, among others.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• IPO
• Technology
• Indonesia
• TMT
• 500 Startups
• GIC Private
• Microsoft
• Gree Ventures
• Mirae Asset Private Equity
• Standard Chartered
• BRI Ventures
• Mandiri Venture Capital