Indonesia’s Go-Jek close to profit

JAKARTA: Go-Jek, Indonesia´s first billion-dollar startup, is "extremely close" to achieving profitability in all its segments, except transportation, its founder and CEO Nadiem Makarim told Reuters.

Launched in 2011 in Jakarta, Go-Jek - a play on the local word for motorbike taxis - has evolved from a ride-hailing service to a one-stop app allowing clients in Southeast Asia´s largest economy to make online payments and order everything from food, groceries to massages.

"We´re seeing enormous online to offline traction for all of our businesses and are close to being profitable, outside of transportation," said the 34-year old CEO.

The startup is expected to be fully profitable "probably" within the next few years, Makarim added.

Already a market leader in Indonesia, where it processes more than 100 million transactions for its 20-25 million monthly users, Go-Jek is now looking to expand in Southeast Asia.

Ride hailing services in Southeast Asia are expected to surge to $20.1 billion in gross merchandise value by 2025 from $5.1 billion in 2017, according to a Google-Temasek report.

Go-Jek said in May it would invest $500 million to enter Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, after Uber struck a deal to sell its Southeast Asian operations to Grab - the bigger player in the region. Go-Jek is seeing strong funding interest from its backers as it targets an aggressive expansion, Makarim said. —Reuters