Heaptalk, Jakarta – On Monday (17/5), ride-hailing and digital payment decacorn, Gojek, and e-commerce platform, Tokopedia announced that they officially merged as a group known as GoTo Group. The merger of these two giant companies places the Group as the 12th largest startup in the world, with a total valuation reached US$18 billion. In addition, the valuation leads the Group as the largest startup in Southeast Asia.
The merger issue had stuck out at the beginning of 2021 when a disclose respondent stated that the companies have a merger plan since 2018. The plan was accelerated when the negotiation between Gojek and Grab hit a dead end. However, since the news has spread out, both parties did not reveal any statement to the public. The Firms just confirmed this big news while officially introduced GoTo to the public at a press conference on Monday (17/5).
“Today is a truly historic day as we mark the form of GoTo as well as the further phase of growth for Gojek, Tokopedia, and GoTo Financial,” stated Andre Soelistyo, CEO GoTo Group.
With the merger, the Group has a total Gross Transaction Value (GTV) of US$ 1.8 billion yoy. In addition, the measure also enhances the total of GoTo partners to attain more than 11 million merchants as of December 2020 with the monthly active users was 100 million people. According to the record of 2021, the Group also has fostered more than 2 million drivers. Last year, the Group contributed 2% of the GDP in Indonesia – a country with a total GDP was more than US$1 trillion – and this year, the number is expected to rise.
“Looking forward, GoTo Group will contribute over 2 percent of Indonesia GDP and will create more jobs as well as income opportunities along with our business and Indonesian economic growth,” stated Patrick Cao, GoTo President.
Patrick’s statement is likely to be happened by considering the business model of the Group that will combine e-commerce, shipment, food delivery services, fintech, and transportation. The presence of GoTo will potentially make same-day e-commerce delivery to become a standard of shipment. GoTo fintech, such as GoPay later, can serve unbanked and underbanked population across the country, which also means will leverage national financial inclusion. With its services that can capture most of society’s household needs, nothing short astonishing that GoTo can achieve this vision.
As the next step to obtain the goal, GoTo Group plan to tap into a great potential economic growth in Indonesia – claimed as the biggest in Southeast Asia – by targeting middle segment as well as young and tech savvy generations.
“We are excited to start a new phase in our business journey and will strive to innovate to promote growth that is more inclusive in every sector that is reached by our technology,” added Patrick.
