Abu Dhabi SWF to lead GoTo's pre-IPO fundraising with US$400m investment

THE Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) will lead the pre-IPO fundraising of Indonesia's biggest tech group GoTo with a US$400 million investment, the latter said on Wednesday.

This will be the sovereign wealth fund's (SWF) first principal investment by ADIA's private equities department into a technology business in South-east Asia. The investment is also its largest one in Indonesia to date, GoTo noted.

ADIA is the latest among GoTo's stable of notable investors, which include Alibaba Group, Astra International, Facebook, Global Digital Niaga, Google, KKR, Sequoia Capital India, PayPal, SoftBank Vision Fund 1, Telkomsel, Temasek, Tencent and Warburg Pincus.

GoTo group chief executive Andre Soelistyo said ADIA is the first investor for its pre-IPO fundraising. This comes as the group looks to prime the business for exponential growth over the coming months and years.

"Backing of this scale underlines our belief that Indonesia and South-east Asia are emerging as the next great destinations for tech investment," he said.

Hamad Shahwan Al Dhaheri, ADIA's executive director of the private equities department, said the investment in GoTo is aligned with a number of ADIA's key investment themes, such as the growth of the digital economy in the fast-growing markets of South-east Asia.

"We see strong potential in the region, particularly in Indonesia where the vibrant economic backdrop is encouraging ADIA to continue to deepen its presence," he added.

GoTo, formed through the merger of ride-hailing-to-delivery-to-payments firm Gojek and e-commerce leader Tokopedia in May.

READ MORE: Indonesia's GoTo to wrap up US$2b funding round, eyes IPO in 2022: sources