Motorbike taxis on-demand company Go-Jek raises $550 mn funding

Aiming to compete with the likes of Uber and Grab in the South-east Asian market, Indonesia-based motorbike taxis on-demand company Go-Jek has reportedly raised a funding of $550 million in its latest round.

It also hinted that it may expand to other parts of Southeast Asia for the first time. Apart from the rivalry, the fundings will also be used to scale operations and grow its services, which include a payment system, food delivery, courier services as well as regular passenger rides.

Private car-hailing startups Uber Technologies Inc. and Grab have now started their operation in the South-east Asian market, the home turf of Go-Jek.

Nadiem Makarim, the CEO and co-founder of GO-JEK, said in a statement, “We are extremely humbled and excited to work with such world-class partners. KKR, Warburg Pincus, Farallon, Capital Group and other participants in this fundraiser not only bring global experience in the TMT sector, but they are also experienced, local partners.”

According to Go-Jek, it has had 20 million app downloads to date. For its services business, it said it has 35,000 food delivery partners and 3,000 ‘service’ providers.

Go-Jek also claims 200,000 motorbike drivers, who are known as “ojeks”, in its fleet across Indonesia. Indonesia is the world’s fourth largest country with a population of more than 250 million people.

The fierce competition between cab aggregators has made it a very interesting space in the region. While Didi Chuxing bought off Uber for $35 Billion on its home market after spending billions for years, the same strategy would not work for Grab or Go-Jek.

Southeast Asia is very likely to witness an interesting battle between all these companies in the coming months.