(Bloomberg) -- PT Tokopedia, Indonesia’s largest online marketplace, is raising $1 billion from existing investors including SoftBank, people familiar with the matter said.
The e-commerce operator is valued at about $7 billion after the round, the people said, asking not to be identified as the details are private. That would make it the most valuable startup in Indonesia, according to the research firm CB Insights. While it wasn’t clear if the backing comes from SoftBank Group Corp. or its Vision Fund, the Tokyo-based company transferred prior holdings in Tokopedia to the fund earlier this year.
Rapid smartphone adoption has fueled growth as 37-year-old Chief Executive Officer William Tanuwijaya, the son of a factory worker, taps into a population increasingly comfortable with shopping online. Indonesia’s internet economy is the largest and fastest growing in Southeast Asia with e-commerce poised to be worth $53 billion by 2025, according to a recent report by Google and Temasek Holdings Pte.
A cashed-up Tokopedia, which was founded in 2009, will present more formidable competition for its rivals. China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is expanding its Lazada business in Southeast Asia, while PT Bukalapak.com is signing up hundreds of thousands of neighborhood stores as partners and Singapore’s Sea Ltd. is investing heavily to expand its e-commerce business.
A Tokopedia representative declined to comment. SoftBank didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read a profile of Tokopedia CEO William Tanuwijaya
Tokopedia was No. 1 in Indonesia in the third quarter, according to market researcher iPrice Group, which used monthly web visits based on SimilarWeb’s data. It was followed by Bukalapak, Shopee and Lazada.
Tokopedia’s gross merchandise value, which refers to the total value of goods sold on is platform, has more than tripled this year, according to the people familiar with the matter. The company matches customers with merchants instead of selling products from its own shelves and offers electronics, clothing and health-care items. It also operates websites for buying train tickets and topping up mobile-phone plans.
--With assistance from Joyce Koh.
To contact the reporters on this story: Yoolim Lee in Singapore at yoolim@bloomberg.net;Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Peter Elstrom
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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