airasia Digital to Acquire Gojek’s Operations in Thailand

airasia Digital has unveiled plans to acquire Gojek’s operations in Thailand in a stock swap.

Gojek is one of Southeast Asia’s leading mobile on-demand services and payments platform.

The deal is expected to rev up expansion of the airasia Super App in ASEAN, while enabling Gojek to increase investments in its Vietnam and Singapore operations. In return, Gojek will receive a 4.76% shareholding in the airasia Super App.

As part of its commitment to Thailand, the airasia Super App will leverage the existing ecosystem services for riders, merchants and customers while adding new offerings, such as groceries and beauty items. It is also expected to expand into new markets like Chiang Mai and Phuket in the near future.

The Gojek app will continue to operate for existing users in Bangkok through to 31 July 2021 to ensure stability for Gojek drivers and merchants - who will be invited to onboard the airasia Super App in coming weeks.

airasia will work with the existing Gojek team in Thailand, who will operate the Gojek business during the transition period before moving over to the airasia super app.

At the same time, in a realignment of its international strategy, Gojek is increasing investment in its Vietnam and Singapore operations, having identified these markets as strong sources of growth for the business going forward. This includes increased driver and merchant acquisition initiatives, enhancements to user experience as well as launching new products and services.

Gojek CEO Kevin Aluwi, said, “This deal is a testament to the accomplishments of our team in Thailand, who grew the business from nothing to an on-demand service provider that has made a difference to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country. The business was built on a huge amount of talent and passion and we will of course, work closely with our Thai employees as well as airasia through this transition. We are proud of and deeply grateful for everything Gojek Thailand has achieved, as well as for our loyal Thai consumers and driver and merchant partners, who have always been at the heart of what we do.”

The airasia Digital group consists of three companies, namely the airasia Super App which provides a lifestyle platform for travel, e-commerce, financial services, farm to table, health and edutech products and services. The logistics venture Teleport, and airasia’s BigPay fintech business which is now on track to become the region’s first virtual bank.

Tony Fernandes, airasia Group CEO, the deal is “the start of a tremendous long term strategic partnership with Gojek which is sure to rock the industry. By taking on Gojek’s well-established Thai business, we’ll be able to turbo charge our ambitions in this space to become a leading ASEAN challenger super app. We already have a complete digital economy ecosystem. We have successfully established over 15 different non airline products and lifestyle services on our digital e-commerce platform in Malaysia. Now it’s time to take it to the next level. In response to overwhelming regional demand, we are setting our sights on bringing our Super App offerings to all of our key markets, following the successful roll out in Thailand. All of our digital businesses are going from strength to strength and through this alliance, our goal of becoming the ASEAN Super App of choice is fast becoming a reality.”

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