[Weekly Updates] Gojek Secures New Funding; Traveloka May Have $1 Billion Fintech Business; and More

Gojek just announced it has secured another $2 billion for its Series F round. Also, in the news the week on how Traveloka may have $1 billion fintech business, payment startup Cashlez is to go public, a better understanding about Indogen Capital's funding strategy, and a Y Combinator alumni Jamiphy is targeting Indonesia's market with app dubbed as "Tiktok for musician".

Gojek Secures New Funding Worth of 18 Trillion Rupiah

Gojek is reportedly secure new funding in the Series F round, it is said to reach US$1.2 billion or 18 trillion Rupiah. According to a source by Bloomberg, based on the memo from Gojek’s Co-CEO, Andre Soelistyo and Kevin Aluwi, this round was closed per last week. There’s no further details on the participant investors.

This has become the biggest fund of a tech player in the first quarter of 2020. Amidst the pessimistic for the digital business ecosystem due to some cases, including the COVID-19 pandemic that captures global attention, including Indonesia.

Gojek has performed market penetration in several countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore.

Analyzing Traveloka’s Potential as a Fintech Company

Traveloka Group President Henry Hendrawan, in an interview with Reuters at the end of 2019, stated, “Financial services as a whole started from almost zero in early last year and we hope that it will easily become a $1 billion business next year.”

Hendrawan’s statement indicated high optimism in his fintech business, there was even news that the company was raising special funding for this product line. It is not impossible, with a unique proposition that can make Traveloka’s fintech business (read: Caturnusa) bears the status of a unicorn, following its parent entity.

Caturnusa, with its core business as a finance company, facilitates Traveloka’s movement to find sources of funds as it should’ve come from institutions. When using license as a lending company, there are limitations in finding sources of loans, which come from individual borrowers.

Behind Cashlez Optimism to IPO Soon

Cashlez, a fintech startup for payment gateway and mPOS, has performed corporate action to be listed in the stock exchange. According to the plan, the company aims for Rp90 billion to Rp100 billion by releasing 300 million shares or 20.29% from modal to be placed and fully channeled after IPO. The price ranging for Rp298-Rp358 per share.

Cashlez’s President Director, Teddy Tee Setiawan said, the fund raised will be channeled to acquire similar organizations engaged in payment gateway named Softorb Technology Indonesia. The rest will be for operational matters.

Amidst the global economic slowdown due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic, Setiawan said he was optimistic that Cashlez shares could be well absorbed by the public. According to him, the IPO is a long-term plan that has been prepared long before the outbreak of the virus.

Indogen Capital is an Industry-Agnostic, Bridging Investors to Indonesian Market

Indogen Capital, as a VC with family-business background experiences and powerful network, aims to be a value-adding partner for overseas VCs looking to grow in expand into the Southeast Asia market, particularly Indonesia. That is supposedly what makes them different from other VCs.

In terms of stage, Firmanto said the VC is specialized in pre-Series and Series A. They only target post-seed, not the seed level due to high-risk. However, he admits that the company has exceptions, particularly on the organizations that involved professionals or serial entrepreneurs.

Indogen Capital began operation in late 2016, it’s when the Managing Partner, Chandra Firmanto, has graduated from his family business and initiated something new with some friends. They started to invest in organizations since 2017 and managed to invest in 18 portfolios today, including the leading car trading platform in Southeast Asia, Carsome, and the online marketplace of local Islamic fashion designers’ products in Indonesia, Hijup. The latest one is a short-term rental and property management platform, Travelio.

Regarding ticket size, they set around $200,000-500,000 at the first fund.

Jamiphy Aims to be a “Tiktok for Musician”, Focusing on the Indonesian Market

Jamiphy has been launched in Indonesia in early March 2020. A San Fransisco based platform, it is targeting the Indonesian market because many of its followers on social media come from Indonesia. Jamiphy is one of the participants of the W20 batch Y Combinator acceleration program.

Jamiphy’s CEO, Owen Carey, said, “Jamiphy is made specifically for musicians and music lovers. Everyone knows and many are using TikTok, except for musicians. We have made the platform easier for musicians to make great videos, and for users to find and find the music they like."

After obtaining seed funding from Y Combinator, the company is targeting to have 100,000 active users in Indonesia and then expand to India and the United States. To date, Jamiphy is said to have around 3000 active users and is experiencing a 50% growth every week.