Indonesian conglomerate makes hefty investment in insurance, transportation

Funding may help market’s first ‘unicorn’ to expand its vehicle leasing and insurance services

Indonesian conglomerate makes hefty investment in insurance, transportation

Insurance News

By Gabriel Olano

Astra International, a diversified conglomerate based in Indonesia, has invested IDR2 trillion (US$150 million) in vehicle insurance and leasing ventures during transport firm Go-Jek’s latest funding round.

According to Astra CEO Prijono Sugiarto, his group has been looking to invest in Go-Jek for quite some time.

“We see that Go-Jek is special, its development is significant,” Sugiarto told reporters at a news conference.

Aside from Astra, tech giant Google and Singapore’s national wealth fund Temasek also participated in the funding round for Go-Jek, which is considered Indonesia’s first “unicorn.”

“We have yet to have a fix business model [with Astra], but we are leaning towards two-wheel and four-wheel business leasing, or providing insurance to motorists,” Go-Jek CEO Nadiem Makarim was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Globe.

The investment will help Go-Jek compete with other regional rivals such as Grab in the fast-growing markets of Southeast Asia. The region’s large population and improving economies have seen increased adoption of app-based services and digital payment platforms in recent years.

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