Gojek and Tokopedia merge to form GoTo Group

Indonesian ride-hailing super-app Gojek and ecommerce marketplace Tokopedia have confirmed they will merge to form GoTo Group.

The two companies did not disclose the value of the deal, which has been in the works for months, but claimed it will be Indonesia's largest merger ever. Estimates place the deal in the neighborhood of US$18 billion to US$22 billion. In February, Bloomberg reported that ultimate goal is a potential IPO with an expected public-markets valuation of $35 billion to $40 billion.

Gojek chief executive Andre Soelistyo will lead the combined business as GoTo's CEO. Tokopedia president Patrick Cao will become president of GoTo. Kevin Aluwi will remain CEO of Gojek and William Tanuwijaya will continue to lead Tokopedia. Soelistyo will also lead the payments and financial services unit, which will be rebranded as GoTo Financial.

Both companies are backed by large amounts of venture capital. Tokopedia's investors include Alibaba Group, SoftBank and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC. Gojek has backing from Google, Warburg Pincus and Tencent Holdings. Other backers include Astra International, BlackRock, Capital Group, DST, Facebook, JD.com, KKR, Northstar, Pacific Century Group, PayPal, Provident, Sequoia Capital India, Telkomsel, Temasek, and Visa.