

in what is expected to be the largest-ever US equity offering by a Southeast Asian company. It did not pan out, however.Īnd mid-April, Grab announced that the company intends to go public in the US in partnership with Altimeter Growth Corp. In fact, the merger, which was quite a few months in the making, follows almost a year of talks between Gojek and the heavily-funded Singapore super app Grab, which claims to be the 'leading superapp for deliveries, mobility and financial services in Southeast Asia'.įor almost a year, Gojek and Grab, the region’s two largest ride-hailing companies, and both decacorns, had been negotiating a merger, with speculation of a merger reaching its height in October/November last year. While Tokopedia's CEO William Tanuwijaya discusses the merger and creation of GoTo Group as building a company that "creates social impact at scale, levelling the playing field for small businesses and giving consumers equal access to goods and services across the country", the reality is that the merger is very much about taking on Gojek's biggest regional rival, Singapore's super app Grab.
#Tokopedia merger drivers#
Gojek and Tokopedia have been in talks for months, however they have worked together since 2015, with Gojek's local network of drivers helping to accelerate Tokopedia's product deliveries. The companies are preparing for a dual listing, both in New York and Jakarta for later this year with a proposed valuation of US$18bn (Gojek is valued at US$10.5bn and Tokopedia at US$7.5bn).

This merger, which has been on the cards for months, marks the largest of its kind between two Asia-based internet media and services companies, and as an entity, contributes 2% to the country’s GDP, and counts more than US$1.8bn transactions and over 100m monthly active users. Indonesia’s two biggest startups, ride-hailing giant Gojek and marketplace Tokopedia, have announced they are merging to form GoTo Group, the largest technology group in Indonesia.
