Indonesian ecommerce platform Tokopedia just announced that it has secured a new funding round of US$1.1 billion, led by Alibaba Group.
The confirmation came after much speculation that JD.com – Alibaba’s main competitor in China backed by Tencent – was in talks with Tokopedia for a US$500 million round.
It was revealed to Momentum Works that Tokopedia had received multiple offers, and the Alibaba team came with the highest price.
Alibaba recently increased their holding of Lazada, another major ecommerce platform in Southeast Asia, from 51% to 83%, with a US$1 billion capital injection.
This would be a major setback for JD.com and Tencent for their effort to build a foothold in Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world. It is known that Tencent is leading a round of US$1.2 billion into Go-Jek that is yet to close.
Both Alibaba and Tencent announced their Q2 results in the last 24 hours, with Tencent increasing net profit by 70%, while Alibaba growing its net profit by 96%, both beating the expectations of the most optimistic analysts.
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