Gojek Chief Says on Track to Raise $2 Billion Before 2019’s End

(Bloomberg) -- Gojek is on track to raise $2 billion in its ongoing funding round before the end of the year, accelerating capital-raising to drive an expansion into mobile payments and food delivery.

The ride-hailing giant has now handled about $1.5 billion of transactions outside of Indonesia, thanks to a budding expansion into the rest of Southeast Asia, President Andre Soelistyo told Haslinda Amin on Bloomberg Television. Backed by Google and Tencent Holdings Ltd., Gojek has rapidly grown an international business from scratch after setting up shop in countries like Singapore and Vietnam just nine months prior, he said.

Gojek is trying to out-do Singapore-based Grab Holdings Inc. in the provision of a plethora of internet services that both companies hope to build into a coherent, all-purpose super-app. The Indonesian startup had raised about $1 billion from Tencent and others as of early 2019, but it remains on the hunt for capital. Amazon.com Inc. is said to be in talks to join the current round to bolster its presence in Southeast Asia, but Soelistyo declined to comment on potential backers. On Thursday, Grab co-founder Tan Hooi Ling said it will invest $150 million into artificial intelligence research, staffing and development over the next year to boost its own competing app and services.

Read more: Grab Will Invest $150 Million in AI to Build Regional Super App

“We can say now we’re not just an Indonesian company,” Soelistyo said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Sooner Than You Think conference in Singapore. Gojek is in “four countries and hopefully soon into six.”’

Gojek debuted its app for hailing motorbike taxis in Jakarta in 2015. Since then, it’s evolved into a provider of ride-sharing services, food delivery and a digital wallet. It also offers a dozen other on-demand services such as house cleaning and medicine delivery.

As part of the ongoing funding round, Gojek -- valued at $10 billion according to CB Insights -- had also secured investment from Visa Inc., Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank Plc., Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance Co. this year. The terms of those deals have not been disclosed.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yoolim Lee in Singapore at yoolim@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan, Vlad Savov

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.