Gojek Sell ​​Coins.ph in the Philippines to ex-CFO of Binance; GoTo Allocates IDR 310 Billion to Driver Partners

Gojek officially sells its payments business in the Philippines Coins.ph. Quoting from The Ken, the transaction value is $200 million (approximately 2,8 trillion Rupiah). This figure is twice as large as when it was first purchased Gojek in January 2019 of $95 million (approximately 1,3 trillion Rupiah).

Source The Ken also stated that some regional investors who are familiar with Coins.ph or Gojek confirm the agreement. The buyer is Wei Zhou, former CFO of Binance. Zhou left the company abruptly in June 2021.

Coins was founded in 2014 and is led by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ron Hose. Coins is a payments startup that allows its users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies and make digital payments. Hose then left Coins in 2020 to join Wavemaker Partners as a Venture Partner.

On its website it is stated that Coins has three business units, namely: mobile payment, digital money and payment systems for businesses. In digital money units, Coins has Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum trading platforms. Coins also trades Bitcoin with Peso currency, even though the buyer and seller do not have bank accounts.

Then over time, the company developed its financial services by offering bill payments, remittances, to mobile top-ups. Now, the company has integrated with Ronin, Sky Mavis' Ethereum sidechain created specifically for play-to-earn Axis Infinity.

In the Philippines, the popularity of the game Axie Infinity soared amid the pandemic. Sky Mavis reports that 29 of the 70 game downloads in April 2021 came from the Philippines. The increase was triggered by the fluctuating unemployment rate during the pandemic. This NFT game is used as an alternative to earn income.

At the same time, crypto transactions are growing rapidly because the government has been so serious about grounding it since 2019. At that time, the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (PSE) questioned whether the country was ready to establish a complete crypto exchange. On the other hand, the use of domestic digital payments is getting stronger. 10% of GDP comes from remittances made by 10 million Filipino expatriates working overseas.

In recent years, the Philippines has been trying to establish itself as a regional crypto hub. In 2018, the country opened a Special Economic Zone located in Cagayan which was intended for a number of crypto companies.

After witnessing the rapid growth of digital asset users in the last three years, in January 2021 the Philippine central bank decided to issue new regulations for cryptocurrency service providers.

Maybe, such conditions make Gojek feel that they are not on the same path to deepen the penetration of digital payments in the realm of MSMEs. Because in the Philippines, crypto currency is more accepted because its effects are so pronounced. In Indonesia, the growth of crypto transactions is not as massive as compared to the Philippines. GoPay in Indonesia has become an alternative for top up balances on several crypto asset trading platforms, such as Pintu, Tokocrypto, Indodax, and so on.

Share allocation for driver partners

At the same time, GoTo allocate funds amounting to Rp310 billion specifically for driver partners in the GoTo ecosystem in the Mutual Cooperation Shares Program. The company gives free shares to all loyal and qualified driver partners.

In an official statement, GoTo Group CEO Andre Soelistyo said, from the beginning he hoped to bring partners to share the benefits when GoTo conducted an IPO. "Therefore, through this Mutual Cooperation Share Program, GoTo wants to give appreciation to driver partners who have worked together to build the GoTo ecosystem from the start and have been loyal with us in the ups and downs of the company's journey," said Andre, Monday (4/4). ).

The beneficiaries of this program cover various criteria for driver partners, ranging from GoRide, GoCar, GoSend, GoFood, and GoBox. Meanwhile, the driver partner criteria are determined based on several factors, including the duration of the partnership and the active status of the driving partner. Almost all active driver partners in Indonesia have the opportunity to join this program.

Partners who have been registered as partners from 2010 to 2016 will have the opportunity to receive 4.000 shares of GoTo series A shares. Meanwhile, partners registered from 2017 to February 2022 have the opportunity to receive 1.000 series A shares.

The shares will be received by the driver-partner after the end of the eight-month lock-up period calculated from the statement that the GoTo IPO registration statement has been declared effective by the Financial Services Authority (OJK) as mandated by OJK Regulation Number 22/POJK.04/2021. GoTo has received an effective statement from OJK on March 30, 2022.

Separately, according to applicable regulations, driver-partners in Singapore and Vietnam will also receive a form of appreciation in cash.

To improve the financial literacy of driver-partners, GoTo will also collaborate with financial and investment experts to provide introductions and training on financial and investment management. The GoTo Mutual Cooperation Share Program is claimed to be one of the most inclusive share ownership programs in the world today. This inclusive and unique shareholding scheme not only enables driver-partners in Indonesia to receive free economic benefits from GoTo's IPO, but also engages merchant partners and consumers.

Loyal GoTo merchant partners and consumers have also received priority access to order GoTo shares through fixed share allocation (fixed allocation) during the initial offer period (bookbuilding) which took place from March 15-24 2022.

In addition, the company also allows all permanent employees to become shareholders to help foster a culture of 'owner mentality', in line with the Company's Long Term Incentive Plan Program which aims to attract and reward high performing talent since the company was founded.

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