Facebook, PayPal invest in Indonesian food delivery, ride-hailing operator

SINGAPORE: Facebook Inc messaging platform WhatsApp and PayPal Holdings Inc on Wednesday said they have invested in payment, food delivery and ride-hailing app operator Gojek as part of the Indonesian firm’s ongoing fundraising round.

WhatsApp and PayPal did not disclose the size of the investment. A Gojek investor told Reuters the Facebook investment, the first for the firm in Southeast Asia, was “meaningful”.

According to a regulatory filing, Facebook now owns a 2.4 per cent stake in Gojek’s GoPay fintech arm, while PayPal owns 0.6 per cent of GoPay.

WhatsApp Chief Operations Officer Matt Idema said in a blog post his company would work with Gojek “to support the growth of millions of small businesses”.

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The move is expected to help Facebook and WhatsApp, which have more than 100 million users in Indonesia, tap into the country’s fast-growing e-commerce sector. It comes just over a month since Facebook’s $5.7 billion investment in the digital arm of India’s Reliance Industries.

Reuters reported in April that Facebook was in talks with Gojek about an investment and was working with three e-wallets in Indonesia, including Gojek’s GoPay, to launch mobile payment services.

PayPal said in a statement its “payment capabilities would be integrated into Gojek’s services” and enable its users to use GoPay at PayPal merchants globally.

Gojek was founded in 2010 as a ride-hailing firm and has since evolved into a one-stop app through which users can make online payments and order food and services.

In a statement, Gojek said existing investors Tencent and Google also joined the latest fundraising round, which people with direct knowledge of the matter said valued the firm at $10 billion.

The fundraising had reached $1.2 billion as of March, showed an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.

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Funding talks with Amazon.com Inc, have been dropped, as have talks for existing backer Meituan Dianping to take a much larger stake, the people said.

Gojek and Amazon declined to comment. Meituan Dianping did not respond to a request for comment.

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