- Gojek and Visa set to work together to improve access to banking facilities in the region, especially in countries like Indonesia where cash is still highly popular
- The funding came as a result of a Series F round
- Both parties “have a shared goal to bring formal financial services to the unbanked and underserved, including micro, small and medium businesses”, says Visa regional president
Major global name Visa has announced it will invest in a Southeast Asian payments platform called Gojek.
Gojek, which is a mobile payment on-demand platform, sourced the support from Visa through a Series F fundraising round.
It is understood that the aim of the partnership is twofold. First, the pair will work together to help those who do not currently have access to banking services in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand as well as Indonesia and others.
They will also work to enhance the online money transfer product offering of Gojek, and attempt to transform it into a service that is useful and well-liked by the many residents of Southeast Asia’s large cities.
Indonesia, in particular, is perceived to have a problem when it comes to an unbanked population.
Over half of all transactions in the country, which has a population of almost 270 million people, are believed to be centred around the use of cash.
Investigations have shown that a shift towards a digitalised payments system would have a significant effect on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and that there could be a rise in that metric of up to 14%.
According to Visa, the partnership is an opportunity to “make everyday life more convenient” for the users of the platform.
“We are excited about this partnership because Visa and Gojek share common objectives”, said Visa’s Regional President for the Asia Pacific region, Chris Clark.
“We both want to make everyday life more convenient, whether it’s how people move around town in Southeast Asia’s fast-growing urban areas or making it easier for people to pay and be paid all over the world.”
“We also have a shared goal to bring formal financial services to the unbanked and underserved, including micro, small and medium businesses”, Clark added.
For Gojek, the firm’s President Andre Soelistyo said that the firm had been “humbled” by the amount of support received.
“We’ve been humbled by investor support over the course of our current fundraising round as they have truly shown confidence in our long-term vision of powering the next phase of technology-enabled growth in Southeast Asia”, he said.
Gojek began as a motorbike reservation platform but has since been built up over the last nine years, and now the Gojek group offers more than 20 different services.
Media reports did not divulge the amount of investment that Visa provided to Gojek.
To learn more about the investment activities of firms like Visa in the cross-border payments world, check out our magazine page.
