Go-Jek Fields Bank Pitches Amid $3 Billion Funding Drive

(Bloomberg) -- Go-Jek, Indonesia’s most valuable startup, is choosing an adviser to help with fundraising as it expands rapidly in the competitive Southeast Asian ride-hailing industry, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The firm recently asked investment banks to pitch for a role working on its ongoing financing round, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Go-Jek could seek to bring in as much as $2 billion additional capital from new investors, the people said, which would take the total haul from the current round to around $3 billion.

Go-Jek has already raised just over $1 billion at the first close of the ongoing Series F round, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month. Mitsubishi Corp. and Provident Capital participated alongside existing investors Google, JD.com Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd.

The Jakarta-based startup is intensifying its push against larger rival Grab. The two most valuable startups in Southeast Asia are going head-to-head in everything from ride hailing to mobile payments and food delivery in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Grab said last month it raised more than $3 billion in 2018 as part of its Series H financing round.

Record Year

No final decisions have been made, and the eventual size of the fundraising will depend on investor demand, the people said. A representative for Go-Jek declined to comment.

Southeast Asia’s internet firms raised $9.1 billion from venture capitalists, private equity firms and corporate investors in the first half of last year, headed for an all-time record, a report from Google and Temasek Holdings Pte. shows. The industry raised $9.4 billion in all of 2017, according to the November research.

The region’s ride-hailing market is expected to reach $28 billion by 2025 from an estimated $7.7 billion last year, the report shows, underscoring the ambition of Go-Jek and Grab to become Southeast Asia’s super apps.

--With assistance from Manuel Baigorri.

To contact the reporters on this story: Crystal Tse in Hong Kong at ctse44@bloomberg.net;Yoolim Lee in Singapore at yoolim@bloomberg.net;Joyce Koh in Singapore at jkoh38@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net, ;Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Timothy Sifert, Edwin Chan

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