Gojek aims to raise more than $2 billion in a funding round before the end of this year, with interest from tech heavyweights Google and Tencent, auto giants Mitsubishi and Astra International, as well as US payments company Visa and Asian life insurer AIA. DHONI SETIAWAN
For Gojek, having grown from a delivery call centre with 20 motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers in Jakarta to a $10 billion technology company backed by heavyweights Google, Tencent, Visa and Astra within nine years, the only constant is change.
But the latest change may well be the biggest in Gojek’s history so far. The company will be led by two co-CEOs, Kevin Aluwi and Andre Soelistyo, after co-founder Nadiem Makarim stepped down to join the government as education and culture minister for Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration from this year to 2024.
The change came as Gojek was on its way to expand its international operations, with licences to operate in Malaysia and the Philippines still unsecured as of yet and fundraising efforts ongoing for overseas expansion plans. It now operates in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Gojek, which currently handles two billion transactions per year with two million drivers and 400,000 merchant partners, aims to raise more than $2 billion in a funding round before the end of this year with interest from tech heavyweights Google and Tencent, auto giants Mitsubishi and Astra International, as well as US payments company Visa and Asian life insurer AIA.
With Nadiem’s departure happening amid such big plans for Gojek, the new co-CEOs, both in their 30s, remain undeterred. Under the leadership of Kevin and Andre, Gojek’s user base is expected to shift to be half from Indonesia and half from its overseas presence, the co-CEOs briefed local media editors last week. Today, Indonesian users’ share dominates at 80 per cent.
‘To become a global firm’
In an effort to go global, the new chiefs also shared their vision for the on-demand services company – which handles ride-hailing to beauty services and ticketing to cleaning with $9.5 billion in transactions per year – to go public and offer their shares in an initial public offering (IPO) in two countries, including Indonesia.
“One of the reasons to launch an IPO under a dual listing scheme is to become a global company,” Andre told the limited media briefing.
“Both of us have run the Gojek business together with Nadiem for a while, so the shift in leadership will not disrupt day-to-day operations and company growth,” said Kevin.
“We will focus on finding the root of the problem for consumers, solve problems and that way, our business will develop. And the growth will need to be done sustainably,” Andre added.
Andre will focus on corporate strategy, capital allocation, international expansion and financial and payment services. Meanwhile, Kevin will focus on product development, marketing strategy, organisational development, as well as ride-hailing and food-delivery services.
Nadiem has so far been known as the public face of Gojek, meeting high-ranking officials to ensure smooth operations and deals, including with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
From Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg to Tesla’s Elon Musk and locals Achmad Zaky of Bukalapak and Andrew Darwis of Kaskus, charismatic tech founders have been one of the strong factors for investors and stakeholders to put trust in the companies.
However, investors from Google, Tencent, private equity KKR to venture capital Sequoia have pledged their trust of Gojek’s co-CEOs, sharing written comments supportive of Kevin and Andre as questions emerged over the leadership transition.
“Andre and Kevin are exceptional talents and have been playing a key role in driving Gojek’s growth. We have seen first-hand the leadership transition and seamless execution as they have been working closely to grow the business into the size and scale that it is today,” said Warbug Pinces Southeast Asia managing director and head Jeffry Perlman.
‘We remain committed’
Kevin and Andre have been the day-to-day navigators for Gojek’s operations with Andre, one of the early investors of Gojek through private equity Northstar Group as executive director, having raised $4 billion for Gojek as group president from Google, Tencent, KKR and Warbug Pincus.
Kevin, who has experience in business intelligence, has built Gojek’s tech team as essentially the mind behind the app’s user experience, data, engineering and products.
“We remain committed in our investment in Gojek,” said Paulus Bambang Widjanarko Santoso, director at one of Gojek’s local investors Astra, who was present at the editors briefing with the co-CEOs.
Gojek commissioner Garibaldi “Boy” Thohir, CEO of energy giant Adaro Energy and one of Indonesia’s highest net worth individuals, was also present at the briefing.
“Consider this a men’s doubles [badminton sports], they will have to figure out their standing position to complement each other’s role. I see them as complementing one another,” said Boy. “I hope that as according to our vision and mission, Gojek will be a global company from Indonesia.”
Gojek’s investors’ optimism came on the back of estimates that Indonesia’s digital economy will dominate Southeast Asia by 2025 with its market value tripling to $130 billion, according to a recent study by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company. Ride-hailing services and e-commerce are expected to lead the growth.
In light of the burgeoning industry, critics have called for more profit-and-loss-oriented business practices by technology companies around the world rather than focusing on gross merchandise value, which has been an indicator for start-ups valuations.
“We agree with those who say that we should stop burning money,” said Andre when asked about a price war with Gopay’s e-wallet competitors through cashbacks, adding that customer incentives would be gradually phased out to ensure profitability.
THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
