Indonesian Unicorn Go-Jek Buys Stake In Filipino Crypto Wallet Coins.ph

By Rishma Banerjee

A unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion. As per recent reports, one such Indonesian unicorn, Go-Jek has announced a collaboration between the company’s payments platform, Go-Pay, and Filipino cryptocurrency wallet Coins.ph. However, this deal will see Coins.ph continue to run as usual, despite Go-Jek now owning a majority stake in the company.

Though the specifications and details about the partnership have not yet been fully disclosed, Manila Standard reports that the deal will include a “substantial acquisition” of shares by Go-Jek, thus granting the country a majority stake in Coins.ph. Techcrunch’s report cited two undisclosed industry sources and said that the deal saw Go-Jek pay $72 million for the shares.

Launched in Jakarta in 2011, Go-Jek now is Indonesia’s largest on-demand multi-service platform, and it is estimated the company’s most recent funding round have boosted Go-Jek’s valuation to between $8 billion and $10 billion. Coins.ph also has grown to boast of a customer base of over 5 million in less than five years of operating, with the company claiming to have processed 6 million cryptocurrency transactions during the month of December 2018.

The two companies in question will reportedly focus on the Filipino market, where 77 percent of adult citizens do not have bank accounts. While few citizens have access to financial services, nearly 70 percent of Filipino citizens use mobile phones which has prompted analysts to believe that the Indonesian market is ready for widespread adoption of cryptocurrency.

Ron Hose, the founder, and chief executive officer of Coins.ph said:

“In just a few years, our team has been able to build a scalable service extending financial services to millions of Filipinos … Together we have a tremendous opportunity and by leveraging Go-Jek’s resources and expertize, we can give Filipinos even more convenience, choice, and access to the services they want.”

Aldi Haryopratomo, the chief executive officer of Go-Pay, stated:

“We are excited to work with Coins.ph, a company that shares our ethos of empowering communities by bringing more people into the digital economy. Consumer transaction behavior in Indonesia and Philippine share many similarities, and together with Coins.ph, we hope to have similar success in accelerating cashless payments in the Philippines.”