To further fuel the expansion of its technology team in India, the Indonesian bike-hailing giant Go-Jek has today announced that it has acqui-hired an app development firm called LeftShift Technologies. The financial details of the transaction haven’t been disclosed by either party.
This buyout comes on the heels of the acquisition of healthcare marketplace Pianta and also the marks its fourth investment in an Indian company. This addition will enable Go-Jek to further strengthen and upscale its product development, design, and engineering platforms for ease in domestic operations.
Commenting on the acquisition of the app development firm, Sidu Ponnappa, MD at Go-Jek Engineering India says,
LeftShift is arguably among the best mobile app developers in the country. We look forward to their immensely capable team becoming a part of the Go-Jek family.
Pune-based LeftShift Technologies was founded by Sudhanshu Raheja and Abhinit Tiwari in 2007 with the mission of creating of ‘loveable apps’ that provide the best design and customer experience. Over the past nine years, it has helped more than 200 companies, including BookMyShow, Ubisoft, PepperTap, Oyo, Byju’s, Airtel, and Practo, among many others to design and develop their platforms.
Post acquisition, the 42-member strong team, comprising of Android, iOS and web developers, will relocate from Pune to Bengaluru and merge with Go-Jek’s engineering arm in India. This addition will lead to the total headcount of the engineering team in India rising to a total of 100 employees. These professionals comprise of developers, data scientists, designers and product managers who mine collected data to deliver better user experiences.
Sharing his excitement on joining the Go-Jek engineering team, Sudhanshu Raheja, founder and CEO at LeftShift says,
The opportunities and challenges at GO-JEK are beyond thrilling. Being fully aware of its operations, we immediately knew that our resources and technology would certainly complement and accelerate product development at GO-JEK.
Moreover, the fact that our work would help millions of GO-JEK mobile app users in Indonesia is something we are very excited about as well.
Go-JEK, the fastest courier, transport, and shopping service in Indonesia was founded in 2010 by a trio of founders. The company has recently attained a ‘unicorn’ status in the country after the monstrous $550 million investment led by KKR and Warburg Pincus. This round also saw participation from multiple existing investors — including Sequoia India, Northstar Group, DST Global, NSI Ventures, Rakuten Ventures and Formation Group.
