When large funding rounds are in the works, information tends to seep out ahead of time.
Today, Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia presents its own version of the story, confirming the latest investment was led by SoftBank’s Vision fund and Alibaba, but saying the round amounts to US$1.1 billion, higher than previously reported $1 billion by Bloomberg. This means its locking in the same amount as it did with the Alibaba-led investment from one year ago.
In a statement, the firm says it will continue to focus on the Indonesian market and drive economic development and financial inclusion in Indonesia. It wants to use the funds to build technology and infrastructure that empowers local businesses and to improve customer experience.
While the rest of the world might be still catching up to the fact that Tokopedia is no longer mainly a marketplace for physical goods, but also has a vast array of digital products and services such as tickets and vouchers, the company is thinking about its next stage of development.
“In our first nine years, Tokopedia focused on building Indonesia’s largest marketplace for physical and digital goods. Leading into our tenth year, Tokopedia is evolving our ecosystem to infrastructure-as-a-service where our logistics, fulfilment, payments and financial services technologies will empower commerce, both online and offline,” Tokopedia co-founder and CEO William Tanuwijaya said in a statement.
“We are excited to deepen our relationship with Tokopedia in enabling Indonesian small businesses and accelerating Indonesia’s economic development,” added Kenny Ho, the head of investment for Southeast Asia and India at Alibaba Group.
According to Tokopedia’s legal documents that are filed with the Indonesian foreign investment coordinating board, SoftBank related funds, including the VisionFund, and Alibaba through its Taobao subsidiary, are significant shareholders.
Tokopedia says it serves 93% of districts in Indonesia across 17,000 islands and that is has quadrupled its gross merchandise value in the past year, though didn’t give out a specific number.
Editor: Ben Jiang
