T

he year 2018 may be a boom one for homegrown ride-hailing operator Go-Jek as it continues to attract funding from major global and local companies in support of its business expansion.

Seen as one of Indonesia’s startup unicorns (companies with a valuation of over US$1 billion), Go-Jek saw investment by US-based tech titan Alphabet Inc.’s Google in January as the latter raced to tap the country’s growing number of internet users.

Local giants like diversified conglomerate Astra International and Djarum Group’s subsidiary PT Global Digital Niaga (GDN) followed suit on Monday by announcing their investments in Go-Jek, formally PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa.

With an investment totaling $150 million in Go-Jek’s minority shares, publicly listed Astra, which has businesses ranging from automotive manufacturing to banking, may be envisioning a roadmap to enlarge its capacity with the help of a newly rising tech startup.

“Astra and Go-Jek will assess all possible opportunities, but so far, the priority is to delve deeper into providing solutions for automotive and mobility,” Tira Ardianti, Astra’s head of investor relations wrote in a text message on Tuesday, declining to elaborate.

Astra International president director Prijono Sugianto said the company shared a similar vision with Go-Jek, especially since its investment was the biggest step toward developing a new digital platform encompassing all of its businesses.

Prijono did not specify whether there would be specific collaboration between Astra’s digitization program and that which Go-Jek currently manages, but instead stressed that his company had wide portfolios in insurance, health insurance and leasing, among other things.

“As you can see now, our company sells 4.5 million motorcycles and 600,000 cars each year. All of this data will be collected in a database, which hopefully will be able to benefit Astra’s business ecosystem,” he said.

Meanwhile, GDN, the owner of major e-commerce platform Blibli.com, eyed possible collaboration with Go-Jek in logistics services, payments and other product development to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs), said the company’s CEO Kusumo Martanto.

Go-Jek and Blibli.com already collaborate in several features offered by the startup, such as Go-Send and Go-Point.

In logistics services, Kusumo said there might be a possible partnership utilizing Blibli’s warehouses in five cities, including Jakarta, Medan in North Sumatra and Surabaya in East Java, where Go-Jek also operates its ride-hailing services.

In fact, Go-Jek cofounder Andre Soelistyo has said part of the funds it raised from the newest investors would be used to expand its presence, including to the eastern part of Indonesia, from the current 50 cities.

Aside from planning a hub and academy for young Indonesian engineers to learn programming, data science and other skills, Andre said Go-Jek would develop technological innovations to accommodate more SMEs as it already had features like Go-Food, which is a delivery service for food merchants.

Go-Jek’s ambition to expand its business is not only in the real sector, as CEO Nadiem Makarim has mentioned that the company also wished to enable its popular payment feature, Go-Pay, to be used beyond its own app, such as in online marketplaces and other platforms.

“We want Go-Pay to be accepted in other ecosystems; this year we hope many users won’t need to pay in cash, but rather through digital payment using Go-Pay,” he said, adding that more partners would mean higher growth of Go-Pay transactions. (roi/dpk)