GoTo gets $1.3b in first tranche of pre-IPO funding

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) said last month that it would commit $400 million as the lead investor in the round. Additional commitments have come from Avanda Investment Management, Fidelity International, Google, Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), Primavera Capital Group, SeaTown Master Fund, Temasek Holdings, Tencent Holdings, and Ward Ferry.

GoTo is expected to pursue listings in Indonesia and the US. The Jakarta IPO, which would likely come first, is said to have been pushed back in anticipation of regulatory changes that would provide more flexibility around founders’ voting rights.

The company is the product of a merger earlier this year between Gojek, which covers multiple forms of transportation as well as food delivery, logistics, and finance, and e-commerce marketplace Tokopedia. It claims to be the largest mobile on-demand services and payments platform in Southeast Asia with more than 1.8 billion transactions with a gross value of $22 billion in 2020.

Gojek and Tokopedia, which remain standalone brands under the GoTo umbrella, have both received substantial amounts of private funding from the likes of BlackRock, Capital Group, DST Global, KKR, Northstar Group, Sequoia Capital India, SoftBank Vision Fund, and Warburg Pincus.

Gojek launched a 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.

Jakarta has already seen one internet IPO this year, with Bukalapak, the country’s fourth-largest e-commerce platform, completing a IDR21.9 trillion ($1.5 billion) offering in August. The stock is currently trading a 13% deficit to its IPO price with a market capitalization of IDR76 trillion.

Indonesia – and other markets in Southeast Asia – are expected to see more listings by start-ups as local exchanges become more accepting of companies that are high growth yet pre-profit. Long post-IPO lockup periods and a shortage of public market funds to support secondary market trading are highlighted as additional challenges.

Several other unicorns have opted to list in the US through mergers with special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). Grab, Gojek’s closest competitor in the region, agreed to a merger at an enterprise valuation of $30.4 billion in April, though completion has been delayed. Property listings player PropertyGuru and buy now, pay later platform FinAccel are also taking the SPAC route.

“Consumer demand is being unlocked by growth in digital adoption that has brought many new users online. As a result, demand for our services continues to increase, underscored by our commitment to continuously deliver selection, value and convenience to users across the ecosystem,” Andre Soelistyo, CEO of GoTo, said in a statement.

Citi and Goldman Sachs are GoTo’s financial advisors for the pre-IPO round, while Davis Polk and Assegaf Hamzah & Partners are serving as legal advisors.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Expansion
• Technology
• Indonesia
• Growth capital
• TMT
• GoTo
• Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA)
• Fidelity
• Google
• Primavera
• Temasek Holdings