Indonesia's Go-Jek acquires 3 fintech firms to boost payment services

[JAKARTA] Indonesia's Go-Jek has acquired three financial technology businesses, as it expands from ride-hailing and other mobile on-demand offerings into payments and other services.

Go-Jek has bought offline payments processing company Kartuku, online payment gateway Midtrans, and saving and lending network Mapan, the company said on Friday. The acquisitions will take its combined debit card, credit card and digital wallet transactions to close to US$5 billion, it said.

The value of the acquisitions was not disclosed.

The acquisitions "will accelerate financial inclusion for millions of Indonesians and stimulate economic productivity throughout the country," Go-Jek founder and chief executive officer Nadiem Makarim said.

Go-Jek, backed by private equity firms KKR & Co LP and Warburg Pincus LLC, competes with Uber Technologies and Singapore-based Grab to woo customers in the South-east Asian market, home to 600 million people.

According to the statement, Go-Jek has 15 million weekly active users and processes 100 million transactions per month.

REUTERS