Bukalapak Acquires Price Comparison Site iPrice [UPDATED]

Bukalapak announced that it has acquired all shares of Malaysian price comparison website iPrice. Through this acquisition, iPrice has the opportunity to accelerate its growth by taking advantage of the synergies between the two groups.

According to information in the disclosure of the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), this agreement was made through Bukalapak's subsidiary, PT Recommerce Internasional Indonesia (RII). This transaction is worth $ 130 thousand (Rp 1,97 trillion).

Bukalapak Director Teddy Oetomo said that there are two points the company aims to acquire iPrice:

● To strengthen RII's electronic goods sales business (under the GOATS brand) in order to increase benefits and added value for stakeholders, especially in improving the services that can be offered to customers. This is because iPrice has proven strong capabilities in providing product and price comparisons as well as discounts and vouchers, so that consumers can get the best offers. ● To strengthen the ecosystem of RII's parent company, namely the Company, as a digital platform company with commercial objectives that focuses on empowering and supporting MSMEs in Indonesia.

Separately, previously in an official statement on Tuesday (4/4), Bukalapak CEO Willix Halim said that he had known iPrice Co-Founder David Chmelar and his team for years. This acquisition is considered to provide an opportunity to work together more closely.

"With Bukalapak's extensive expertise in e-commerce and iPrice's loyal user base and proprietary technology, we are confident we can unlock the full potential of this platform," he said.

According to Willix, the iPrice acquisition was based on the industry's rapid development E-commerce in Southeast Asia over the last decade. Vertically, the growth is large enough to be sector specific. Observing this trend, Bukalapak decided to shift its focus from competing directly with competitors to building/acquiring market niches to accelerate its growth. Moreover, over the last eight years, iPrice has built this niche to serve the industry E-commerce.

iPrice Co-Founder Heinrich Wendel ensures that iPrice will continue to operate as an independent entity by maintaining its neutral position towards users, and working closely with various merchants and sellers.

"We are excited to join Bukalapak and leverage the group's synergies. This partnership allows us to expand our services to help more users save money in new verticals, such as Gaming, and enter new countries, such as Australia."

Itochu and Naver as iPrice investors also welcomed the agreement. Stagnation on fundraising in the past year forced iPrice to scale back some aspects of its business and reduce its team size substantially. iPrice began exploring new ways to grow the business cost-effectively. The transition is now accelerated with the support of the Bukalapak group in various verticals which opens up many new opportunities.

Last year, iPrice claimed to have helped more than 100 million consumers in seven countries in Southeast Asia save money. Its technology displays the best deals and discounts from more than eight billion offers on the market featuring a variety of sales events and discount mechanisms that are difficult to navigate.

Bukalapak's other acquisitions

Startup acquisitions have become part of Bukalapak's strategy to expand its business. Previously there were a number of startups that were officially acquired and announced to the public, including:

1. Crewdible Online fulfillment service who utilize empty warehouses or shophouses in various areas to work together as company partners.
2. King Kong Meats Platform online groceries which provides chicken meat products, eggs, frozen food and kitchen spices for family cooking needs.
3. Bolu (Let's Learn Online) Edtech platform that focuses on community and online learning place for home business development.
4. PT Onstock Solusi Indonesia A SaaS startup that focuses on developing a cloud computing-based stock management system to help MSMEs do business more neatly and automatically.
5. PT Ayo Tech Indonesia
6. PT Kokatto Global Technology
7. Five Jack Co. Ltd (parent company PT Five Jack which oversees my item)
8. PT Cloud Hosting Indonesia.

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*) We added the latest information from disclosure on the IDX