General M&A
May 17, 2021
5 minutes read

Indonesia’s GoJek, Tokopedia Formalize Big Merger

Two of the biggest technology startups from Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, have formalized deal terms to merge to form…

Two of the biggest technology startups from Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, have formalized deal terms to merge to form an even bigger corporate entity. The two startups are GoJek, a ride-hailing and internet services startup, and Tokopedia, the biggest e-commerce player in Indonesia.

GoJek and Tokpedia are merging to form an entity known as the GoTo Group. The formalization of the merger comes after months of rumors of it happening. It’s said that both companies sought a merger to then list on the public markets in the US soon after.

Details:

After the merger, GoTo Group will be headed by GoJek’s Andre Soelistyo as CEO and Tokopedia’s Patrick Cao as President. Soelistyo is GoJek’s current Co-CEO and Cao Tokopedia’s President.

Under the GoTo Group, GoJek Co-CEO Kevin Aluwi and Tokopedia CEO William Tanuwijaya will remain leading their respective firms.

The value of the combined GoTo Group under the merger terms wasn’t disclosed. Before now, rumors had placed it in the $18bn range.

From their last respective funding rounds, GoJek and Tokopedia were valued at a reported $10.5bn and $7.5bn. Together, both companies have raised over $8bn in venture funding.

Highlights:

GoJek and Tokopedia’s merger is a historic one in the Southeast Asian technology sector. The combined GoTo Group will be a more formidable competitor to Singapore’s Grab, itself the biggest technology startup in the region that recently agreed to go public in a $40bn SPAC deal.

GoJek and Tokopedia’s businesses significantly overlap with each other, particularly in e-commerce and payments. It then gives the combined entity greater strength in those areas in the Southeast Asian market.

GoJek made its mark as a core ride-hailing service before branching out into many other areas such as courier delivery and mobile payments to become an established multi-service platform.

Likewise, Tokopedia made its mark as a core e-commerce marketplace but has branched out into many other areas, particularly in fintech and mobile payments.

GoJek and Tokopedia share common investors including Google and Singapore’s Temasek. Between both, there are many other well-known investors in Facebook, Alibaba, SoftBank, Tencent, and DST.