BlackRock leads $300m investment in Indonesia's Traveloka

Orion Capital Asia and Allianz Global Investors also participated, as did sovereign wealth fund Indonesia Investment Authority (INA), which described Traveloka as “Indonesia’s national and regional champion.”

INA added that the transaction was oversubscribed, attracting significant interest from high-quality long-term capital providers.

It comes two months after Thai government-controlled Oil & Retail Business invested an undisclosed sum in the company, flagging strong interest in exploring operational synergies.

Traveloka has reportedly sought funding in recent months to prepare for a conventional IPO after a planned listing via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) fizzled last year. The SPAC in question, Bridgetown Holdings, is associated with Peter Thiel and Richard Li, son of Hong Kong billionaire Li-ka Shing.

Traveloka is said to have pulled out of a tentative combination citing the faltering performance of SPAC listings. It had previously indicated interest in going public in both Indonesia and the US, noting the rising appetite for Southeast Asia tech on Wall Street.

Founded in 2012, Traveloka is a leader in Indonesia’s digital tourism industry and claims a significant market presence in Vietnam and Thailand, as well as a growing footprint in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The app has achieved more than 100m downloads.

The product portfolio includes transport booking services such as flight tickets, buses, trains, car rentals, and airport transfers, as well as what is claimed to be the largest inventory of hotels, apartments, guest houses, homestays, resorts, and villas in Southeast Asia.

Local services feature bookings for activities, wellness, beauty clinics, and culinary directories as well as food delivery. Financing, insurance products, 24/7 customer service in local languages, and payment services for more than 30 local systems are also part of the offering.

Traveloka has received more than USD 1bn in private funding, including a USD 250m investment led by Qatar Investment Authority during the peak of the pandemic in 2020. Significant investors also include GIC, East Ventures, and Expedia.

The new funding will support further expansion of the platform with expectations for a rise in demand and new customer behaviour patterns as travel options re-open post-pandemic. According to INA, online travel agencies have seen their share of Indonesia’s gross tourism booking increase from 24% pre-pandemic to 33% in 2021 with an expectation to reach 36% by 2024.

BlackRock pointed to a study by Google, Bain & Company, and Temasek Holdings that projected Southeast Asia’s online travel sector would be worth USD 43 billion by 2025, reflecting an annual growth rate of close to 40%.

“Traveloka is a strong leader in the online travel space in Southeast Asia, a region which has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world,” Celia Yan, head of Asian private credit at BlackRock, said in a statement.

“Traveloka’s proven track record and the opportunities brought by resumption of travels have made this an interesting investment opportunity to share BlackRock’s industry expertise and create value as the company pursues its next stage of growth.”

BlackRock was active in the regional tourism space as recently as September last year when it re-upped in Australia-based hotel booking platform SiteMinder by co-leading a AUD 100m (USD 65m) pre-IPO round. SiteMinder raised AUD 627m through a domestic IPO two months later.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Expansion
• Credit
• Indonesia
• BlackRock
• Allianz
• Indonesia Investment Authority (INA)
• Travel
• TMT