T

he management of the government’s preemployment card program revealed Wednesday that it had failed to persuade ride-hailing decacorn Gojek and online airline ticketing and hotel booking unicorn Traveloka to be its partners.

The management’s executive director, Denni Purbasari, said her side had asked Gojek and Traveloka, valued at US$10 billion and $1 billion respectively, to provide online courses to enhance the skills of the program’s eligible unemployment benefit recipients.

“Gojek and Traveloka said: ‘We do not want to participate right now,’” Denni said in an online talk. “After making their assessments, they concluded that [the offer] was not in line with their core businesses.”

The program, which aims to help people whose jobs and businesses had been hit by the COVID-19 outbreak, eventually partnered with eight online learning platforms, including Skill Academy by Ruangguru, MauBelajarApa and Pintaria, to provide such courses.

The preemployment card program, which was launched on April 11 to accommodate 5.6 million eligible recipients this year, recently drew criticism over its lack of transparency in appointing its partners.

Many accused the government of conflict of interest for partnering with online learning platform Skill Academy, which was linked to then-presidential expert staff member Adamas Belva Syah Devara. He later resigned from his post and continued his role as CEO of education tech firm Ruangguru, the parent company of Skill Academy.

Denni said her side had held consultations since last year with tech companies, researchers, labor unions, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) and representatives from more than 50 companies before the appointments.

The current eight partner platforms were chosen because they had met the requirements, such as operating at a national scale, the necessary information and technology capacity, relevant courses and partnerships with training institutions.

“We invited Bukalapak, Tokopedia, Gojek and others, but they do not offer courses,” said Denni, who formerly served as the President’s economic policy adviser. “That was the reason we invited Ruangguru and MauBelajarApa.”

Gojek, employing more than 1 million drivers, is, however, partnering with the program by providing a payment platform through its e-wallet Gopay. The preemployment card program is also partnering with two other digital payment platforms, Ovo and LinkAja, and state-owned lender Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) to disburse cash assistance as part of the Rp 3.5 million (US$231.66) in benefits for each recipient.

Meanwhile, Gojek has secured Rp 14.5 billion (US$963,297) in fresh capital injection from seven investors during the last four to five months, paving the way for the company ‘s “super app” expansion plans while attracting new investors.

Currently valued at $10 billion, the company raised a combined total of Rp 1.4 billion in its series P funding round from three new investors: Rp 1.2 billion from Jakarta-based East Ventures, Rp 97.5 million from Mandiri Capital Indonesia and Rp 113 million from Silicon Valley-based Fenox Venture Capital, kontan.co.id reported.

Earlier in February, PT Pusaka Citra Djokosoetono also purchased 5,941 shares in the series P funding worth Rp 2.9 billion. The company is the majority shareholder of the Blue Bird Group, the holding company that operates Blue Bird taxi, Gojek’s erstwhile rival.

Also in February, PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa, the company that owns the Gojek brand, acquired 4.33 percent shares in the Blue Bird taxi company from Pusaka Citra Djokosoetono, worth Rp 450 billion, as reported by Bloomberg.

The acquisition was widely viewed as part of Gojek’s strategy to manage competition with its primary rival, Singapore-based ride-hailing company Grab Holdings, while expanding its food delivery and digital payment businesses.

Gojek’s existing investors have also increased their investment through the series P funding this year, with tech giant Google Asia Pacific purchasing 11,883 additional shares worth Rp 5.9 billion. The latest acquisition increases Google’s ownership in Gojek to 8.69 percent, from 2.59 percent in the series I round of funding and 5.24 percent in the series M round.

Meanwhile, SMDV II SG, the Sinar Mas Group’s Singapore-based venture capital arm, has invested Rp 1.4 billion in the company through the series P funding this year. In November 2019, Unilever Swiss Holdings acquired 5,530 shares in Gojek worth Rp 2.77 billion.

Gojek released 45,552 shares for the first part of its series P funding round in June 2019, which were acquired by the United States’ Visa International Service Association and Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Lease and Finance at Rp 500,000 per share for a total value of Rp 22.8 billion.

The ride-hailing company has issued 1.7 million shares in funding rounds from series A to series P, with paid-up capital totaling Rp 689.87 billion. The company has around 130 institutional and individual investors listed as registered shareholders in its updated articles of association dated April 23, 2020. (eyc)