<article>Indonesian e-commerce unicorn <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/tag/Tokopedia">Tokopedia</a> has acquired a minority stake in mobile payment company <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/tag/Tokopedia/">OVO</a>, according to multiple sources familiar with the deal.</article>

Indonesian e-commerce unicorn <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/tag/Tokopedia">Tokopedia</a> has acquired a minority stake in mobile payment company <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/tag/Tokopedia/">OVO</a>, according to multiple sources familiar with the deal.
One executive said that the stake purchased by Tokopedia was less than 20 per cent, and added that the e-commerce major had subscribed to fresh equity shares of the payment company.
Another executive familiar with the development said the latest deal values OVO at over $1 billion, making it Indonesia’s fifth unicorn after GOJEK, Traveloka, Tokopedia and Bukalapak.
A third executive said that OVO was looking to raise about $200 million with DBS Bank handling the mandate, and added that the round was still open after Tokopedia&#8217;s investment in the payment company.
When contacted, OVO said it has &#8216;no announcement regarding [an] investment&#8217;. Tokopedia declined to comment while Lippo executives did not respond to an email query.
For OVO, this is the second instance of it bagging an investment from a regional unicorn. Last year, it had bagged an undisclosed investment from the region&#8217;s largest ride-hailing startup Grab. The investment was followed by the appointment of the then GrabPay managing director Jason Thompson as the new CEO of OVO.
It is understood from sources that the investment made by both Tokopedia and Grab was into Bumi Cakrawala Perkasa, or BCP, the company behind OVO and part of Lippo Group.
The investment by the two unicorns is said to be a part of a larger strategy by common investor SoftBank to have its portfolios partnering with each other. Moreover, the deals are expected to help OVO raise more capital from investors on the cap table of both Grab and Tokopedia for its future investment rounds. It also enables OVO to leverage the technology and other expertise from some of the strategic investors in the two companies.
Both Grab and Tokopedia have signed partnership agreements with OVO to integrate its payment platform into their respective services after struggling to obtain licenses for their own e-wallets.
Grab forged a partnership with OVO in December 2017 after it failed to secure an e-money license for GrabPay amid rigid central bank regulations, while Tokopedia turned to OVO last year after a long wait to obtain a license for its TokoCash feature, which had been under Bank Indonesia’s assessment for over a year.
OVO, which is a company borne out of Lippo Group’s venture build initiative, is not known to have had any external investors prior to the investment from Grab.
The partnerships with Grab and OVO have significantly expanded OVO’s use case and transaction volume, having previously relying largely on its access to the Lippo ecosystem for use cases, which includes malls, F&amp;B businesses and hospitals.
Today, the company claims to be the largest digital payments platform in the country with 1 billion transactions recorded in 2018, a 75x increase in transaction volume. The top three transactions conducted on OVO pertain to transport, retail and e-commerce.
OVO&#8217;s parent company Lippo this week announced a $1-billion funding programme to recapitalize and restructure its development arm, Lippo Karawaci. The funding comprises $730 million raised from a rights issue underwritten by the Riady family and $280 million from the completion of its asset divestment plans.
The capital is set to right-size the company’s balance sheet through deleveraging and repayment of up to $275 million of debt obligations and provide it with around $290 million of liquidity buffer to fund debt interest and REIT rental obligations through 2020-end. It will also help it unlock shareholder value through investments in existing key projects, for which it has earmarked $100 million over the next three years.
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<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/kudo-lucius-ovo-grab-114977/">Kudo co-founder Lucius joins payments startup OVO amid Grab investment rumour</a>
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/indonesia-lippo-karawaci-125126/">Indonesia’s Lippo Karawaci bags $1b funding, appoints new leadership</a>

Indonesian e-commerce unicorn Tokopedia has acquired a minority stake in mobile payment company OVO, according to multiple sources familiar with the deal.

Tokopedia said to acquire double-digit stake in payment startup OVO

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Tokopedia said to acquire double-digit stake in payment startup OVO

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