(Oct 4): PT Bukalapak.com raised capital from investors including Indonesian media giant Emtek and South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group Co., a round of funding that valued the online marketplace at more than US$2.5 billion ($3.4 billion).
The Jakarta-based startup, which last month said it would cut about 10% of its workforce to focus on profitability, announced the transaction but wouldn’t provide more details. Bukalapak, backed by China’s Ant Financial and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, was previously valued at about US$2 billion, according to a person familiar with the company’s accounts. GIC joined this funding round, said the person, who asked not to be named because the matter is private.
“We have been making a lot of changes internally since early this year,” Bukalapak Chief Strategy Officer Teddy Oetomo said. “We want to strike the right balance among our growth, long-term sustainability and positive impact for Indonesia.”