Southeast Asia’s ride hailing firm Gojek is close to acquiring a mobile point-of-sale (POS) software provider called Moka, and the deal is expected to be finalized at the beginning of next year, according two people familiar with the matter.
To a question on why Gojek is interested in acquiring Moka, a source revealed that Gojek needs the tools for increased monetization from its merchants.
“Gojek has many networks of merchants in its platform. Gojek needs tools, so that it can monetize more from every merchant,” a source told KrASIA.
Declining to mention the acquisition price tag, another source only said that the number will be greater than USD 120 million, which was mentioned by a Bloomberg report on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, chief corporate affairs at Gojek, Nila Marita said: “we cannot comment on market speculation”. Moka’s spokesperson did not respond to KrASIA’s queries.
As of October 2019, Gojek’s digital wallet, GoPay had more than 420,000 merchants including food and beverage merchants. Meanwhile, Moka is arguably the market leader in Indonesia’s point-of-sale segment, and aims to secure 50,000 merchants by the end of this year.
In 2017, GoPay had acquired some fintech companies, including Kartuku, Midtrans, and Mapan, and these companies are said to support its payment infrastructure system.
In 2018, Moka received USD 24 million in series B funding, led by Sequoia India. The investment firm is also one of the investors in Gojek. Some C-suite leaders in Moka are also a part of Gojek’s management team.
Moka’s existing investors include Softbank Ventures Korea, as well as EDBI (the investment arm of Singapore’s Economic Development Board) and EV Growth, a series B-focused fund operated by EastVentures, Sinar Mas Digital Ventures, and Yahoo Japan. Convergence Ventures, Fenox, and Mandiri Capital are also investors.
Khamila Mulia contributed to this report.