JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - Local venture capital firm, BRI Ventures, announced that it had made strategic investments to support the 13.5 million micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the Bukalapak platform ecosystem, said the CEO today (04/15). Data from the cooperative ministry the MSME sector contributed 60.34 percent to the national gross domestic products and absorbed 58.18 percent of total investment in Indonesia.
CEO of the company, Nicko Widjaja, explained the strategic investment was part of their’ commitment to encourage financial inclusion in Indonesia and create sustainable MSME empowerment, as well as part of strategic funding activities carried out by Bukalapak.
Bukalapak Partners, has reached more than 13.5 million MSMEs and more than 100 million users throughout Indonesia. In addition, one of unicorn in Indonesia has launched a B2B e-procurement business line through BukaPengadaan Indonesia in 2019, as well as a Joint Investment Opening.
Recently, global media reported, the 11-year-old startup has raised US$234 million of funding round led by Microsoft, Singapore’ GIC, and conglomeration firm, PT Elang Mahkota Technology Tbk (IDX: EMTK). Also involved in this funding round are SC Ventures, the investment arm of Standard Chartered Plc., and South Korea’ Naver Corp.
Bukalapak is estimating have a valuation more than $2.5 billion have planned to list it shares in Indonesia Stock Exchange helped by PT Mandiri Sekuritas, before merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in the United States.
The e-commerce provider, which is founded by Achmad Zaky and his friends, has announced their intention to be listed on the foreign and local bourse since last year. The CEO, Rachmat Kaimuddin, in January said, they are open for any option, including list the share in the capital market.
So far, the company’ final funding came from American-based Microsoft Inc., for $100 million in November 2020. Earlier, their competitor, Tokopedia, had appointed Morgan Stanley and Citi as advisors to accelerate its plans to become a public company. However, the Grab-backed firm has not yet decided the scheme and the stock market.
The management revealed that the company is currently reviewing one of the schemes, namely SPAC. Beside IPO, the company also looking the other options, such as merger with other tech firm, GoJek. The management wrote, “SPAC is one of the potential options that we can consider, but we have not decided yet at this time.”
According to CLSA Sekuritas, the mega-merger plans is predicted to creates a market cap up to $40 billion and will rank third after PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (IDX: BBCA) with a market cap of Rp855.53 trillion ($59.82 billion) and PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk (IDX: BBRI) worth Rp576.03 trillion.
“GoJek – Tokopedia also has the potential to do dual listings on the Indonesian and US stock exchanges,” wrote the research.
According to CLSA, this merger will later strengthen Tokopedia’ logistics capabilities, strengthen the fresh food segment, as a growing segment, and excellence in developing B2B businesses with a business portfolio of e-commerce, ride-hailing, food delivery, financial technology, and digital banking.
While, director at IDX, Laksono Widodo said that there will be a digital company with unicorn status that will conduct an IPO on the IDX this year. He still keeping a secret the name of the unicorn. He said that the IDX had met with the founders and management of a number of unicorns in Indonesia.
From the meeting, there were a number of inputs from the unicorns for the IDX, and they will be accommodated for the sake of the joy of the capital market.
Written by Editorial Staff, Email: theinsiderstories@gmail.com
