Down Rocky Land: The Journey Gojek Towards the Stock Exchange

Gojek born out of the frustration of co-founder and former CEO Nadiem Makarim. In 2008 and 2009, Nadiem was an aspiring young management consultant working for McKinsey. To get from his house to work every day, he needs fast transportation to get through Jakarta's dense traffic. A private car is not the right choice, because the streets of the capital are often jammed. Nadiem, 25 years old, is a loyal motorcycle taxi customer. He even saves the numbers of some of the taxi drivers on his phone so he can schedule rides.

However, he was frustrated by the inconsistent quality of service. “Sometimes my regular motorcycle taxis [regular motorcycle taxis] are elsewhere and are not available,” he said in a 2019 interview with former minister Gita Wirjawan. "Only technology can scale that up."

Those are seeds Gojek, a company that originated from call center simple taxi. But Nadiem made several maneuvers before the company finally became the first decacorn in Indonesia.

Nadiem left McKinsey to study at Harvard Business School for two years. After graduating, he joined Zalora in 2011. Gojek was up and running, with 450 drivers at the time. After Nadiem felt he had gained enough knowledge and experience to run his own startup, he resigned from Zalora in 2012, and poured his all into Gojek. Indonesia's urban population already understands ride-hailing apps, thanks to Uber and Grab (which was then called GrabTaxi). Variation Gojek those focused on motorbikes were well received as it is more practical for most people to traverse Jakarta on two wheels rather than four.

Nadiem hooked his colleague at Zalora, Kevin Aluwi, to manage the company with him. Andre Soelistyo, who was previously part of the investor Gojek, Northstar Group, also joined the company full-time as president. With an initial funding of USD2 million from Openspace Ventures and the Capikris Foundation, app Gojek online in January 2015. It was an overnight success.

Now, Gojek has an unwavering influence in Southeast Asia. The company is increasingly shaping how people travel, and how people use their phones for a range of functions — payments, food orders, buying groceries, and more — by simply building more than 20 types of services in one app. A merger with e-commerce company Tokopedia is in the works for the largest M&A in the history of the Indonesian tech sector, and will likely go public later this year.

Early founders Gojek, Andre Soelistyo (left), Nadiem Makarim (center), and Kevin Aluwi (right). Documentation by Go Figure on the Youtube channel Gojek

Not just ride-hailing

Uber's Tracks offer founding members a glimpse Gojek about the future. They knew their ride-hailing service would be popular, but there was a downside: the business model involved burning insane initial capital on discounts and subsidies in order to build up a sizable user base. In 2019, Uber and Lyft did Tough IPO, with a valuation below the expected range. If Gojek want to break the cycle, the company will need many legs to stand on.

Nadiem understood this and laid the foundation for diversification Gojek since early stage. When first launched, Gojek offers four services — ride-hailing feature GoRide, which forms the backbone of the company; GoSend delivery service; GoMart wholesale services; and food delivery service GoFood. This initiative makes Gojek to be a very different figure, because GrabTaxi and Uber were fully focused on transportation at the time. Then, in 2016, Gojek launched its electronic payment branch, GoPay. At that time, Nadiem said this was because many users complained that drivers often did not have enough change. His friend from Harvard, Aldi Haryopratomo, will be GoPay's captain until January 2021.

that year, Gojek being the first unicorn in Indonesia, a company worth more than USD 1 billion.

For some, having a hand on multiple fronts may be a risky proposition, but the first move pays off Gojek. The company became a leading player in the sector, even beating out food delivery rival FoodPanda. Ride-hailing is no longer the company's main revenue generator. On the other hand, the costs from food delivery and payment are a monetizer. In 2018, Gojek grossed USD 9 billion in gross transaction value (GTV) from all markets, according to a press release published in February 2019. GoPay contributed USD 6,3 billion to the total, while GoFood channeled USD 2 billion. In 2020, GTV Gojek reached USD 12 billion, strengthened by three times the transaction volume for GoPay and services paylater company.

This development attracted the attention of foreign investors. Google, Tencent, and JD.com are in for the Series E round Gojek in 2018, driving its expansion into Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand.

Gojek has one significant advantage in Indonesia — its team is aligned with the needs and desires of the people in the country. A growing middle class population wants to multiply its wealth as much as it wants to spend its money in new ways, on new things. Many invest in stocks, mutual funds, even gold. Fast-moving technology companies can provide a means for large numbers of people to explore this investment path, and Gojek don't want to miss.

In 2019, GoPay added a mutual fund investment option through collaboration with Seeds. And in May of that year, Gojek launched the GoInvestment sharia gold investment service with the Pluang investment application.

When Gojek make progress to a lot environments, the company lost Nadiem, who was appointed minister of education and culture in President Joko Widodo's cabinet. Kevin and Andre became co-CEOs.

Kevin Aluwi (left) and Andre Soelistyo, Gojek co-CEO. Documentation by Gojek

New priority

Even farther, Gojek invest in insurance companies PasarPolis, which then binds the two, allowing GoPay users to purchase travel, health, vehicle, and property insurance offered by PasarPolis. In April 2020, Gojek acquired Moka POS service to expand its B2B network. Moka is used by more than 35.000 restaurants, retail outlets and coffee shops in more than 100 cities in Indonesia.

Gojek in line with market changes. Many Indonesians now feel very comfortable using their mobile phones for payments, ordering food and groceries, making investments and taking out insurance policies, according to the e-Conomy SEA 2020 report published by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company. They can do all of this in one place — the app Gojek.

For merchants, GoPay and the acquisition of Moka made the learning curve for implementing digital payments smoother. Integrating POS and e-wallet systems makes transactions easier.

When scale Gojek widespread, the pandemic hit it from all sides. The transportation industry basically evaporated during semi-lockdowns. The vertical lifestyle where users can order services such as house cleaning and massage, GoLife, was cut entirely, and the company cut 9% of its total workforce. Kevin said transportation, food delivery and payments will be the company's main focus from then on. The new focus triggered a management reshuffle.

Facebook and PayPal invest in Gojek in June 2020, taking advantage of trail Gojek in Indonesia to drum up new business with the country's MSMEs. This resulted in the launch of GoToko in September 2020, which connects underserved warungs, or neighborhood shops, with consumer goods companies. This sector is filled with other players such as Kudo, Bukalapak Partners, and merger partners Gojek reported by Tokopedia with the Tokopedia Partner program.

To really establish presence Gojek as an established financial broker, the company made an investment in the digital bank Bank Jago in December 2020. The idea is to expand banking services to its customer base, some of whose members are not clients of conventional financial institutions.

Outer Expedition

Core client Gojek been a commuter in big cities in Indonesia. But now, the business is supported by small traders, usually shop owners who sell groceries and daily needs through GoToko and GoMart, or F&B operators who use GoFood. Indonesia is home to nearly 60 million small businesses, and activities Gojek every day is profitable.

Meanwhile for many drivers who build a reputation Gojek? In some cases, the pandemic is undermining their livelihoods, and the company's relief efforts appear inconsistent. Others work for multiple platforms to stay afloat. But many still use bicycles and wear green helmets with logos Gojek, worked as a buyer and courier.

The company's initial diversification gave it the means to fend off attacks from rivals with much larger ammunition. Gojek has first steps in building user base and acquiring merchant partners in Indonesia. GoFood has been around since 2015, meanwhile GrabFood started operations three years later. (GrabFood is finally advancing in 2019.) In addition, Gojek have services not offered Grab, such as the streaming vertical, GoPlay.

Gojek GoPay was also the second most used e-payment channel in Q1 2021, with a slight lead over Ovo being supported Grab, according to a survey conducted by market research firm Snapcart. However, in some areas, the service is fast Gojek still lost operationally Grab, like food and ride delivery in 2020.

The next step in the map Gojek is increasing the small businesses that use its platform. Gojek held educational activities for the GoFood partner community, which received more than 67.000 new arrivals in the past year. A series of learning modules and virtual discussions provide instructions on how to grow a small business. But Gojek also have to face Grab here. Its Singaporean rival has committed to building this user base as well.

Gojek targeting areas outside the metropolitan cities of Indonesia. In March 2021, the company invested in the LinkAja e-wallet, which has power in small cities in Indonesia. This can help strengthen presence Gojek in the area, on individual devices or local business transaction terminals.

This focus on MSMEs led to mergers Gojek with Tokopedia a good perspective, as Tokopedia is also working to increase its reach beyond the major cities in Indonesia. The combination of the two can give Gojek pintu natural entry into e-commerce, while Tokopedia can strengthen its logistics capabilities. This union will be larger than its total share, and may attract more attention from foreign investors as the company pursues their ticker symbol in 2021.

-This article was first released by KRASIA. Re-released in Indonesian as part of the collaboration with DailySocial