Southeast Asian food delivery giant Gojek has agreed to acquire mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) startup Moka, according to a regulatory notice.
The Komisi Pengawas Persaingan Usaha (KPPU) – Indonesia’s competition regulator – published a notification of the acquisition dated to April 9.
Under Indonesian law, parties to a merger or acquisition must formally notify the KPPU if the transaction is above a certain value, to confirm it has been completed in accordance with local competition rules.
While the value of the deal was not disclosed, Bloomberg had earlier reported that Gojek would pay “at least $120 million” for Moka, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Headquartered in Jakarta with operations across Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, Gojek is duking it out with Singapore-based rival Grab to become Southeast Asia’s on-demand ‘super app’ of choice. Food delivery, ride-hailing, and mobile payments make up both companies’ biggest businesses.
Jakarta-based Moka has developed an mPOS app that runs on Apple iOS and Android devices, aimed at helping restaurants, coffee shops, and other small and medium businesses across Indonesia to digitize their operations.
Its suite allows merchants to manage inventory, issue invoices, analyze sales activity, and accept digital payments from credit cards, debit cards, and mobile wallets including Gojek’s GoPay and Grab-affiliated Ovo. It also helps businesses with customer loyalty programs and employee management. Clients pay Moka a subscription fee to use its services.
Rumors that Gojek and Moka were locked in advanced takeover negotiations began to circulate late last year. While Gojek declined to comment at the time, there would appear to be potential synergies between Moka and Gojek’s restaurant marketplace – GoFood – as well as GoPay. The acquisition of Moka could serve to build out Gojek’s service offering to food merchants and bring in additional subscription revenue as the company pushes forward towards profitability.
Last year, GoFood generated $2 billion in annual transactions volume for Gojek, making it the company’s second largest business unit after GoPay, which handled $6.3 billion. In September, Gojek claimed that GoFood held 75% market share in Indonesia based on “internal research,” while Grab simultaneously claimed its GrabFood service to have almost 50% market share in the country.
Recent funding
Moka raised $33 million in funding in its 2018 Series B round, according to that year’s AgFunder AgriFood Tech Investing Report. That put it in the year’s top 20 fundings in the In-Store Retail & Restaurant Tech category.
Sequoia Capital India led the round, with participation from SoftBank Ventures Asia, Singapore government-linked EDBI, and EV Growth – a late-stage fund operated by Indonesian VCs East Ventures and SMDV with Yahoo Japan‘s YJ Capital – among others.
Last month, it was reported that Gojek raised $1.2 billion in an ongoing funding round. While the investment was confirmed to Gojek employees in an internal memo, the amount and identities of participating investors were not disclosed. Rumored investors in the round included Singaporean bank DBS, credit card giant Visa, and Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank.
Gojek has reportedly raised $5.7 billion in total funding to date. Its earlier investors include Google, Tencent, KKR, Warburg Pincus, and Chinese food delivery giant Meituan Dianping.
In February, reports suggested that Gojek and Grab were holding discussions over a possible merger, with high-profile investors piling pressure on the two unicorns to combine and expedite their route to profitability. Grab declined to comment, while Gojek said the reports were “inaccurate.”
AFN has reached out to Gojek and Moka for comment, and will update this article as necessary.
