A SPAC launched in October by Peter Thiel and Richard Li is being linked to a merger with Indonesian e-commerce company Tokopedia.
About the SPAC: Billionaires Thiel and Li launched Bridgetown Holdings (NASDAQ:BTWN) to target the southeast Asia region.
Thiel is well-known as the co-founder of Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) and as one of the early investors in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). Li is an Asian tycoon with investments in insurance and banking throughout Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore.
The SPAC is targeting a company in the technology, financial services or media markets. The SPAC raised $550 million in its offering.
Related Link: A Huge Week For Facebook Alums Peter Thiel, Dustin Moskovitz And Justin Rosenstein
About Tokopedia: Bloomberg reported Bridgetown in early talks to acquire Tokopedia, a leading ecommerce company in Indonesia at a valuation of up to $10 billion. Tokopedia is the second most valuable startup in Indonesia, trailing only Gojeck, a ride-hailing and delivery company in the country.
Tokopedia is also the largest shareholder n Ovo, a digital wallet startup in Indonesia, according to DealStreetAsia, which estimates ownership of 41.1%.
Tokopedia invested in Ovo in 2019 and began a partnership with the company back in 2018. Ovo was accepted at over 500,000 merchants as of 2019, compared to rival Go-Pay’s acceptance in 300,000 merchants.
Indonesia E-commerce: Tokopedia competes with Lazarda Group, owned by Alibaba Group Holdings (NYSE:BABA) and Shopee, owned by Sea Limited (NYSE:SE) in Indonesia.
Tokopedia is seeing exponential growth during the pandemic according to local news site Tempo.co. The company has over 100 million active customers searching for 350 million products. Tokopedia serves 98% of the sub-districts in Indonesia.
The company said this is the fastest digital transformation they have ever seen in its 11-year history.
Tokopedia Backers: The company is backed by Softbank. Li is already a minority investor in Tokopedia through companies he owns.
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) unit Google and Temasek are said to have invested $350 million in the company recently.
A report from DealStreetAsia reports Google owns 1.6% of Tokopedia. The company is also said to have held talks with Facebook, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) over investments and partnerships.
Benzinga’s Take: Indonesia is the largest economy in SE Asia, which could make Tokopedia a compelling investment for Bridgetown.
Jumia Technologies (NYSE:JMIA) and Ozon Holdings (NASDAQ:OZON) are pure-play e-commerce companies for emerging market e-commerce growth of Africa and Russia, respectively.
Tokopedia being a public company would give investors a pure-play way to invest in the growth of Indonesia.
Price Action: Shares of Bridgetown closed up 22.5% to $13.58.
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