GOJEK Said To Be Acquiring Moka POS Startup

One of the largest and most valuable tech companies in Indonesia, GOJEK, is said to be about to acquire Moka POS, a company that makes payment terminals for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), according to reports citing unnamed sources.

Moka was founded in 2014 and was one of the first FinTechs in Indonesia. It’s raised about $40 million from investors like Sequoia Capital. Moka has terminals peppered all over the country.

The merger is not official yet, and when Moka CEO Haryanto Tanjo was asked about it, he said it was just a rumor.

“We do not comment on market speculation,” he said.

Tanjo said GOJEK partnered with Moka for Go-Pay, GOJEK’s wallet system, which means that Moka’s partners can utilize Go-Pay for cashless payment. Moka doesn’t take only Go-Pay, though; it accepts electronic payments from a variety of other companies, some that would seem to be direct rivals of GOJEK.

One of those is Ovo, which is used by Grab, and others include Dana and LinkAja. Moka POS systems also accept cashless card payments from companies like Kredivo and Akulaku.

GOJEK released a similar statement to Tanjo’s when asked about the merger, saying that it didn’t comment on “rumors and speculation,” according to the report.

A Moka acquisition would be on brand for GOJEK, which has a pattern of acquiring companies to expand its payment capabilities.

The company acquired MVCommerce in 2016, a move which allowed it to get the eMoney wallet that serves as the bedrock of the Go-Pay wallet.

A year later it acquired Midtrans, Kartuku and Mapan, which are all well-known payment companies that all cater to different sides of the payment business.

One reason for the acquisition could also be that Moka has close ties to offline enterprises, and the platform could help GOJEK’s offline purchase businesses.

Moka Chief Technology Officer Grady Laksmono recently said the company has about 18,000 merchants in 200 cities in Indonesia, and that it has expanded beyond simply being a POS company. Now, Laksmono said, the company has a client relationship management program, management software for human resources and a way to navigate loans to its merchant partners.