Telkom Investing In Gojek, Directors: We Are Open To Injecting Funds Into Any Startup

JAKARTA - The state-owned telecommunication company, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (Telkom) gave its comments regarding the news about the plan to invest in PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa (Gojek)

Telkom's Finance Director, Heri Supriadi, admitted that his party has opened up opportunities to invest in any startup. According to him, the inorganic business can be an added value for the telecommunications giant in the country because it can strengthen its customer based or customer base.

"We do not look specifically at, for example, just Gojek. We will see all opportunities or opportunities to complement the digital services business," said Heri in the Virtual Public Expose in Jakarta, Thursday, August 27.

Heri added, the COVID-19 pandemic indirectly requires Telkom to accelerate its transformation efforts into a digital telecommunications company.

"Telkom seizes this opportunity by presenting solutions through a variety of digital services supported by strong digital connectivity and digital platforms. For this reason, Telkom continues to build infrastructure to strengthen all business lines, both mobile related business, fixed broadband and other businesses. "he explained.

Telkom's venture capital company, MDI Ventures, recently secured US $ 500 million in funding. The funds will be used for investment in startups in Indonesia.

MDI Ventures was formed in 2015 which was fully operational in 2016. MDI is a venture capital initiative by Telkom, which provides seed capital to growth capital for small and medium scale startup companies in Southeast Asia and Global .

MDI has invested in 43 startups from 12 countries. Some time ago, MDI announced the distribution of a new investment fund of 500 million US dollars to support startup development and develop the company's digital capabilities.

As for funding for Gojek, VOI notes, since March 2020, this domestic child-made startup has received an injection of funds from Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group worth US $ 1.2 or equivalent to Rp.18 trillion. Facebook and PayPal are also investing in Gojek.

"Gojek always sees opportunities to support digital acceleration as an effort to contribute to the growth and resilience of the Indonesian economy," Gojek Indonesia Chief Corporate Affairs Nila Marita told VOI, Wednesday, August 26.

Regarding the news circulating, Nila has not been able to respond to this. As in the Deal Street Asia report, Telkom plans to inject its capital into Gojek.

Sources said that Telkom planned to invest around US $ 400 million (or the equivalent of Rp5.9 trillion at an exchange rate of 1 US dollar = Rp.14,000) since 2018. However, the agreement failed because it did not receive support from ministry officials at the time.