Indonesia’s Tokopedia Closes Google, Temasek Investments

Indonesian eCommerce unicorn Tokopedia has announced a funding round led by new investors Google and Temasek, the Singapore government-owned holding company.

“We are pleased to welcome Temasek and Google as shareholders in Tokopedia. We are honored and grateful for their trust and support to the company and Indonesia,” William Tanuwijaya, co-founder and CEO of Tokopedia, said in a company statement on Monday (Nov. 16).

“We look forward to working closely with them to continuously build an enduring company, support our mission to democratize commerce through technology and to further accelerate digital transformation in Indonesia,” he added.

The company said it now has more than 100 million monthly users and works with nine million Indonesian eCommerce retailers. The platform operates in 98 percent of districts across 17,000-plus islands in Indonesia.

“In the past 11 years, Tokopedia has never seen a period of digital transformation as fast and as important as today, and we have made every effort to be prepared for this moment,” Tanuwijaya said. 

Further acceleration of the platform’s popularity has been due to the rapid migration to online shopping as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold around the world.

Financial terms for the new funding were not disclosed by Tokopedia. Documents previously filed with Indonesia’s Ministry of Law and Human Rights indicated that Google would hold about 1.6 percent of Tokopedia. Anderson Investments, which is affiliated with Temasek, would have a 3.3 percent stake, according to a report in Deal Street Asia citing Nikkei Asian Review.

Founded in 2009 by Tanuwijaya and Leontinus Alpha Edison, who serves as director, Tokopedia is a digital marketplace headquartered in Jakarta that brings eCommerce opportunities to small and mid-size businesses (SMBs).

Google and Temasek first started mulling Tokopedia as an investment opportunity over the summer and were in talks to invest as much as $1 billion. Backed by Alibaba and SoftBank’s Vision Fund, among others, Tokopedia was also said to be talking to Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon.

Temasek CEO Ho Ching said in July that the company could be worth as much as $215 billion, which is lower than last year’s valuation over the same time period, and the first drop since 2016.

Late last month, Google and Temasek agreed to invest $350 million in Tokopedia. Even before the pandemic, Indonesia had been experiencing an eCommerce boom.