The due diligence for the investment in Fusion Payments is currently underway, with the deal expected to be reached “soon”
Southeast Asian startups Go-Jek, Grab, and Traveloka, and Indonesian media and tech mogul EMTEK Group are bidding to purchase digital payments firm Fusion Payments, according to a Dealstreet Asia report.
Citing anonymous sources, the report said that Fusion Payments will be bought for US$20 million. The due diligence is currently underway with the deal expected to be reached “soon.”
In an email to e27, Go-Jek denied the report about their plan of investing in Fusion Payments.
“… GO-JEK is not in contacts nor have had any interactions with the digital payments firm,” explained a Go-Jek spokesperson.
In the Indonesian market, Fusion Payments operates BerUang, a platform for credit cards and debit cards users to pay for utility, cable TV, internet, and pre-paid mobile phone service bills.
Originating from Australia, Fusion Payments Founder and Group EO Chris Eyles dubbed Indonesia as the “prime target” for taking the company’s technology offshore, following its success in its home market.
Fusion operates in Indonesia with partnership with the country’s largest mobile data providers Indosat and XL Axiata, and current bidders are reported to be interested in the access to strong user base that it provided. They are also interested in their range of payment services, technical solutions, and relationship with enterprises.
Fusion Payments have started raising for funds since April this year. A company executive who refused to be named said that while the company believes that it is “far ahead” in terms of technical and user experience point-of-view, it remains behind in terms of funding.
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The race for e-payment
Go-Jek, Grab, and Traveloka are known as some of the most deep-pocketed startups in the Southeast Asian region.
Most recently, Grab named Toyota Tsusho, the sole general trading company of Toyota Group, as its investor through the auto giant’s Next Technology Fund.
Its fundraising history includes a US$2 billion funding round from DiDi Chuxing and SoftBank Group in July; the company had said that it is looking to raise an additional US$500 million.
OTA giant Expedia in late July confirmed a US$350 million of funding into Traveloka.
As for Go-Jek, it has been reported to raise funding from Tencent, with another report stating that it has also raised from JD.id.
As ride-hailing startups, both Go-Jek and Grab have been pushing for greater adoption of their e-payment feature.
Go-Jek has confirmed the report that its digital payment feature will soon be available for transactions outside of the Go-Jek ecosystem; In Singapore, Grab also enabled non-transportation transactions using its payments service GrabPay. The company is working to roll out the feature in other Southeast Asian markets.
As for Emtek Group, it also has a minority stake in Grab following its acquisition of O2O e-commerce startup Kudo.
The acquisition of Kudo is believed to fuel Grab’s digital payments ambition in cash-heavy Indonesia.
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