Go-Jek aims to raise $2 billion for Southeast Asia expansion: sources —Reuters
What happened: Indonesian ride-hailing firm Go-Jek is seeking to raise about $2 billion from existing investors, including Tencent and JD.com. Go-Jek is preparing an offensive against its main rival Singapore-based Grab, which is considered to be close to Tencent’s main rival Alibaba.
Why it’s important: The two Chinese tech giants have already made steps into the Southeast Asian e-commerce market after Alibaba acquired a majority stake in Lazada and invested in Tokopedia. Tencent, for its part, invested in Singapore’s Sea which operates Shopee, while JD, which is backed by Tencent has been making investments in smaller e-commerce platforms in the region. The ride-hailing market seems to be next. Both Go-Jek and Grab are raising billions of dollars and investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the race to gain dominance in Southeast Asia.