Indonesian unicorn GoTo clinches $1.3b in first pre-IPO funding

GoTo is IPO Indonesia
Image credit: GoTo

GoTo, an Indonesian super app formed by the Gojek / Tokopedia merger, announced that it has raised over $1.3 billion in pre-IPO financing so far. This cements GoTo’s position as the country’s biggest tech firm, offering a wide variety of services on its digital platforms.

The financing will be used to expand GoTo’s market leadership, focus on customer growth and engagement, develop its payments and financial services offering, and concentrate on “hyper-local” services from its transport and logistics operations. Investors like Fidelity International, Google, Temasek, and Tencent backed the recent infusions.

In October, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) led a pre-IPO funding round for GoTo that raised $400 million. ADIA is the first pre-IPO investor of GoTo.

“Indonesia and Southeast Asia are some of the most exciting growth markets in the world, and the backing we’ve secured shows the confidence that investors have in the region’s rapidly expanding digital economy,” GoTo CEO Andre Soelistyo said.

According to a report by Reuters, GoTo was on track to raise up to $2 billion through a pre-IPO funding round before regulatory delays pushed its IPO plans into early 2022. Reuters sources noted that the delays result from the Financial Services Authority of OJK, which is considering new listing standards for technology firms to offer dual-class shares with different voting rights.

In a statement, GoTo said that they are expecting more investors before the pre-IPO financing stage closes in a few weeks.

The story so far

In May, Gojek and Tokopedia merged to create what they call “a globally unique and highly complementary ecosystem,” which is targeted to compete with other Southeast Asian unicorns like Grab and Shopee.

During the launch, GoTo executives boasted of a total Group gross transaction value (GTV) of over $22 billion from 2020, over 1.8 billion transactions in 2020, over 11 million merchant partners as of December 2020, and over 100 million monthly active users (MAU). GoTo is also estimated to encompass 2% of Indonesia’s GDP.

The merger of the two digital giants is Indonesia’s largest ever. Major investors including Alibaba, BlackRock, Facebook, Google, and PayPal provided financial support for the transaction.

“Our goal has always been to build a company that creates social impact at scale, leveling the playing field for small businesses and giving consumers equal access to goods and services across the country,” said Tokopedia CEO William Tanuwijaya in the joint announcement.

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