Brilio.net/en - The motorbike app Go-Jek, which took Indonesia by storm, has now leveled the playing field with its rivals after a $1.3 billion evaluation, following a round of investment that hit $550 million.
Ride-hailing apps Uber and Grab have grabbed the headlines in recently with their respective funding drives. Grab looked especially daunting after a $1.5 billion valuation of its own.
Ever since these apps launched in Indonesia, the demand for such services have grown tremendously. Go-Jek, an Indonesian company, has always been the face of the market in its native country though.Uber and Grab introduced UberMoto and GrabBike, respectively, to compete directly with Go-Jek.
Go-Jek CEO and co-founder Nadiem Makarim said in a statement that we are extremely humbled and excited to work with such world-class partners, KKR, Warburg Pincus, Farallon, Capital Group and other participants in this fundraise not only bring global experience in the TMT sector, but they are also experienced local partners.
Go-Jek's earlierinvestorsare Sequoia India, Northstar Group, DST Global, NSI Ventures, Rakuten Ventures and Formation Group.
Shane Chesson, one of Go-Jeks first investors told the pressthat having this new group of global investors on board will further accelerate Go-Jeks innovation and allow Go-Jek to solidify its position as an Indonesian tech leader.
The timing of Go-Jeks announcement was appropriate, coming just days after Uber sold its business in China to its rival Didi Chuxing, valuing the global company at $66 billion.
It is part of a bid that will exploit more resources into Southeast Asia and India, which will boostUber'scompetitivenessacrossmultiple markets.
One of those is Indonesia, the nation which is home to over 250 million people, and growing. Similarly, Grab has been linked to a new round of investments involving Didi Chuxing, and potentially worth a billion dollars.
Go-Jek app
2016 brilio.net/www.go-jek.com
Go-Jek kicked off its services in Indonesia back in 2014, and the business has skyrocketed ever since the introduction of its mobile application last year. Its user-friendly systemhas been eagerly adopted by Indonesia's booming population of young, digital-savvy people in urban centers.
TechCrunch, a leading technology media portalthat profiles startups and breaks tech news, revealed that April, an average of 256,000 rides were recorded everyday. Two months later, the number had grown to667,000.
Go-Jek has approximately 200,000 motorists on the road. It started by offering rides and courier services, and now offers food delivery, shopping, ticket purchasing, a payment system, small truck rental, massages, makeup artists and more for low prices.
It is the ultimate convenience in packed Southeast Asian cities where getting from one place to another often presents a challenge due to huge congestion from lagging infrastructure.
Go-Jek now seemingly has the ability to lock its home market down. With the new funding though, it's not hard to see it take a dominant foothold in other parts of Asia with millions of tech-savvy young people looking for cheap solutions to dealing with traffic.
(brl/red)
