Indonesia's biggest startups - A $18 billion ride-hailing and e-commerce conglomerate has been merged to form

Cambodia Compass report, 18th May - Gojek and Tokopedia, two of Indonesia's biggest startups, have agreed to combine to form the country's largest tech company and one of Southeast Asia's largest ride-hailing and e-commerce firms.

The new company will be known as GoTo Group, according to a statement released by the two companies on Monday. It will be backed by tech titans such as Alibaba, Tencent, Facebook, Google, and SoftBank.

The total valuation of the two firms is at least $18 billion, according to fundraising done in 2019 and 2020, making this the biggest merger of two Asian Internet companies ever, according to the announcement.

Gojek, based in Jakarta, began as a motorcycle-riding app and has since grown to include food delivery, on-demand groceries and utilities, logistics, pharmacy delivery, and other services. Gojek's mobile payments app allows users to pay for something. Tokopedia is an e-commerce site that allows everyone to open an online store. It was established in 2009. In Bahasa Indonesia, toko means "market."

Andre Soelistyo, the CEO of Gojek, will lead Go To, and Patrick Cao, the president of Tokopedia, will lead the merged company.

"As our business and the economy develop, GoTo Group will account for more than 2% of GDP in Indonesia, and we'll generate a lot more jobs and income-earning opportunities," Cao said in a statement.

The combined company will concentrate not only on Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, but also on other Southeast Asian emerging markets where Gojek already operates.

"We'll use our combined scale to increase financial inclusion in an emerging region with untapped growth potential," Soelistyo said. "Gojek drivers will deliver even more Tokopedia packages, merchant partners of all sizes will benefit from improved market solutions, and we'll use our combined scale to increase financial inclusion in an emerging region with untapped growth potential."

The merger announcement comes only a month after Gojek's larger regional rival Grab made an eye-popping Wall Street debut. The Singapore-based startup announced in April that it would combine with an Altimeter Capital-backed special-purpose acquisition firm, or SPAC, in a deal that would pave the way for a New York listing and value the company at $39.6 billion.

Source: Cambodia Compass comprehensive arrangement

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