Sources claim that the Indonesian unicorn Gojek is in advanced talks with the e-commerce giant and one of Indonesia’s largest startups to date, Tokopedia before its IPO listing. Reuters previously reported that the South Asian upstart is aiming for an initial public offering worth at least $1 billion this year, which will make it the largest overseas listing by a South Asian startup to date. The merger between the two companies would be worth $18 billion, according to a report by Reuters. Gojek and Tokopedia are valued at $10.5 billion and $7.5 billion respectively.
The pair looks to merge and build a “Super App” to increase profitability. The company aims to provide a large number of services, from grocery shopping to hairdressing appointments, in one application to attract more customers. Both the companies have made huge profits during the COVID-19 pandemic as the number of food deliveries and e-payments have increased substantially in this period.
Bloomberg, who first reported the news of the merger, informed that since December both the companies have made substantial progress on the merger. Talks of the merger between the pair had started back in 2018, however, it only took up pace after the merger between Gojek and Grab fell off last November. Both the companies aim to complete the deal in the first half of this year.
Both the companies also feature common investors like Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd, Sequoia Capital, and Google. Tokopedia’s top investors include names such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and SoftBank Group Corp. Last year in June, Facebook and PayPal announced an undisclosed investment in Gojek. Other investors of the unicorn include Warburg Pincus LLC and Tencent Holdings Ltd.
Reuters reported comments of a person with knowledge on this matter who said, “These are amicable conversations between mutually trusted partners. The broad terms are largely agreed.”
