Gojek Eyes Mobile POS Space With Pending Moka Acquisition

Indonesia’s ride-hailing giant Gojek is getting closer to finalizing a deal to purchase point-of-sale (POS) startup Moka for at least $120 million, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.

Gojek is striving to be a digital payments trailblazer in Indonesia, the sources said. The acquisition of Moka, also based in Indonesia, would be a boon to Gojek.

Moka’s cloud-based POS platform assists restaurants, coffee shops and retail outlets with handling payments. The Moka app enables merchants to accept debit and credit cards as well as mobile payments like Alipay. Analytics are provided to help business owners monitor sales and inventory, handle loyalty programs and oversee their workforce.

Moka was in talks with Gojek in the early part of 2019, before Gojek Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Nadiem Makarim stepped down in October to join the Indonesian president’s cabinet. Andre Soelistyo and Kevin Aluwi are now working as co-CEOs.

Indonesia’s most valuable startup, Gojek is valued at $10 billion and is furthering its reach in Southeast Asia with Singapore’s Grab.

Mergers and acquisitions are helping Gojek grow its business over the years. GoPay, Gojek’s app-based digital payments platform, acquired Indonesian group-saving network Mapan in 2017. Aldi Haryopratomo co-founded Mapan and is now CEO of the company.

Also in 2017, Gojek acquired two FinTech firms in Indonesia —  Kartuku, the country’s largest offline payments-processing company; and Midtrans, a top online-payment gateway.

GoPay is accepted as a payment method at 420,000-plus online and offline merchants in 370 cities in Indonesia. About 90 percent of the merchants are micro, small or medium-sized businesses.

About 80 percent of Gojek’s client base operates in Indonesia, which is the largest economy in Southeast Asia and contains about 29.2 million active users. The company said it has 7.1 million active monthly users in the rest of the region.

By the end of the year, Gojek is set to raise about $2 billion, from companies like Google, Tencent and JD. The idea of an initial public offering (IPO) for Gojek has attracted global attention and is widely seen as a potential boon to the market.