JAKARTA, 1 February 2019 – GOJEK has finalized the first closing of its ongoing Series F fundraise. This initial round was led by existing investors Google, JD.com, and Tencent, with Mitsubishi Corporation and Provident Capital among other investors.
GOJEK is Southeast Asia’s largest mobile on-demand service and payments platform with annualised gross transaction value (GTV) across all markets amounting to more than US$9 billion and annualised transaction volume of 2 billion by end of 2018. This performance is underpinned by the company’s leadership in payments and food. The payment infrastructure within GOJEK ecosystem processes US$6.3 billion of annualised GTV, while GO-FOOD processes US$2 billion in annualised GTV making it the largest food delivery service in Southeast Asia.
The investment demonstrates investor confidence in the growth opportunity presented by Southeast Asia’s rapidly expanding digital economy, estimated to reach US$240 billion by 2025, and GOJEK’s ability to unlock that growth by scaling its unique ecosystem model. With cash still predominant and about half the adult population in the region unbanked, there is significant opportunity in payments and financial services in particular.
Launched in January 2015, GOJEK is now a major player in the region in key areas of digital and mobile consumption. The company has evolved into a super app which acts as a transactional ecosystem connecting millions of customers on its platform to millions of drivers, merchants, and service providers.
The funds raised will be used to deepen GOJEK’s market penetration across key verticals in Indonesia and strengthen its presence in its rapidly expanding regional footprint, following the introduction of GOJEK in Singapore, GO-VIET in Vietnam and GET in Thailand.
The reception by consumers in these markets has exceeded expectations. In Vietnam, GO-VIET gained an estimated 40% of the two-wheeled transport market share within three months of launch in August 2018. GO-VIET’s food delivery service has become the leading player among comparable food delivery services within only two months of launch in Ho Chi Minh City and recently in Hanoi. In Singapore, the GOJEK beta app opened to the general public in January 2019 and now offers a very real alternative to consumers and drivers alike.
Following the close of Series F, GOJEK’s founders will continue to maintain control over the decision-making and direction of the company, retaining their ability to execute their long-term vision and continue to drive rapid business expansion.
Nadiem Makarim, GOJEK Group CEO, said: “Our vision has always been to build something truly beneficial for Indonesia and to use technology to create positive social impact. By focusing on solving problems for our users and partners, GOJEK has successfully pioneered the multi-sided platform model where millions of people can consume services that address their most frequent daily needs and where businesses and entrepreneurs can access those consumers, grow their incomes and at the same time gain access to crucial financial services.
“We started out with ride-hailing but in short space of time we have become Indonesia’s industry leader across all key verticals including transport, food delivery, mobile payments, logistics, and merchant services. GO-FOOD has become the region’s largest food delivery service, while GO-PAY is far ahead of the competition as Indonesia’s leading payments platform, used to process three-quarters of Indonesia’s mobile payments.
“As we expand internationally, we are excited to extend our vision to more countries and at the same time put Indonesia on the map as a regional hub for tech innovation. GOJEK and its affiliates now operate in five countries and 204 cities and regencies across Southeast Asia and we have a network of over 2 million driver partners and 400,000 merchants.
“The successes we have enjoyed are testament to GOJEK’s unique ability to create social value at scale, as well as value for our investors, and this latest round of fundraising speaks to the confidence investors have in the team’s ability to execute our vision.”
Andre Soelistyo, GOJEK Group President, said: “We are proud that existing and new investors see incredible value and want to support us with what we are trying to achieve. GOJEK is a truly unique investment. It is the most compelling way for investors to participate in the early stages of Southeast Asia’s transformation into a digital economy, as evidenced by our rapid rise and continued market leadership in the region’s largest market, Indonesia.
GOJEK’s mission is to use technology to solve consumers, drivers and merchants’ everyday problems and through strategic partnerships with global technology leaders, we are in an even stronger position to deliver innovative products and experiences to millions of people across Southeast Asia.”
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Caesar Sengupta, Google’s General Manager of Payments and Vice-President leading the Next Billion Users initiative, said: “GOJEK has made life more convenient for people across Indonesia and Southeast Asia, improving economic opportunity in the process. We believe in their vision, and are committed to supporting this kind of homegrown innovation and economic growth. That's why we are so excited to support GOJEK as it works to serve more and more people across the region.”
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GOJEK is furthering its strategic partnership with JD.com’s Indonesia e-commerce joint venture, JD.id and last mile delivery logistics joint venture, J-Express (JX) to enhance end-to-end logistical capabilities and e-commerce services in Indonesia. In logistics, JX will collaborate with GOJEK’s leading crowdsourced courier network to provide customers with efficient, reliable, and cost-effective logistics coverage, nationwide. The partnership will also involve collaborations in payment solutions, marketing, and IT with JD.id, enabling the e-commerce platform to offer quality products and services to more Indonesian consumers.
Jon Liao, JD.com Chief Strategy Officer, said: “This investment demonstrates our continued confidence in GOJEK’s business and growth potential. GOJEK’s market leadership, unparalleled local insight, and massive, loyal customer base, provides a pre-eminent strategic partner for us in Indonesia. With a dedicated JD.id entry point on GOJEK’s mobile app, 27 million active GOJEK users will have direct access to JD.id’s high-quality e-commerce offering. GOJEK‘s resources from marketing and branding to payments will help JD.id boost customer acquisition and continue to provide the best possible e-commerce experience to consumers in Indonesia. As JD.com expands its presence in the region, we look forward to working together with GOJEK to deliver innovative retail, logistics and consumer solutions across the region.”
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Martin Lau, President of Tencent, said: “Our investment in GOJEK is an important milestone for Tencent in Southeast Asia. GOJEK has maintained leading market share and high growth in its core businesses, while making meaningful progress in new verticals. This additional investment will strengthen our alliance with GOJEK in fast-growing Southeast Asia and enable Tencent to broaden its partner cooperation more globally.”
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FACT SHEET
Southeast Asia’s accelerating internet economy is expected to grow to US$240 billion by 2025 (source: Google-Temasek e-conomy SEA Report 2018). The value of the region’s internet sector has surpassed the GDP of more than 100 countries globally in just the last three years, aided by an increasingly affluent rising middle class, growing urbanisation and a population that continues to rapidly adopt digital technologies, with 90% of internet users accessing the web with their smartphones. Investor confidence in Southeast Asia has also grown, with US$9.1 billion raised by the region’s tech sector in 1H2018 comparable to the US$9.4 billion raised in the whole of 2017.
Indonesia magnifies the opportunity set within Southeast Asia’s internet economy, not just because of population scale, but also because of headroom for technological penetration across multiple verticals. Ride hailing and online food delivery penetration today is estimated at 2-3% of population compared to over 14% in China, while the penetration of digital payments is still rather nascent at sub-1% compared to 15% in China.
GOJEK has become a leading example of how technology companies can excel in this favourable growth environment. The below provides an update on the company’s progress as per 31 December 2018:
Transport
Food
Payments