Indonesian marketplace Tokopedia raises $147m

Tokopedia co-founder and CEO William Tanuwijaya

Indonesia’s C2C marketplace Tokopedia has raised US$147 million in its latest financing round as confirmed by multiple trusted sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the terms and investors are “strictly private.”

This brings Tokopedia’s disclosed funding to a total of $247.7 million.

Tokopedia’s last financing round was US$100 million in 2014.

We’ve reached out to Tokopedia’s co-founder and CEO William Tanuwijaya and he neither wants to confirm nor deny.

Tokopedia’s last financing round was led by SoftBank Internet and Media Inc (SIMI) which saw the startup raise US$100 million in October 2014. SoftBank declined to comment on the current round of funding.

Founders William Tanuwijaya and Leontinus Alpha Edison have built Tokopedia into one of the most successful internet companies in Indonesia since its launch in 2009. Based on SimilarWeb’s Indonesia popular website ranking list, Tokopedia is ranked eighth, beating Twitter, WordPress, and Wikipedia. It is also the most visited local site in Indonesia. App Annie named Tokopedia the top shopping Android app based on its monthly active user count in February 2016.

In a 2011 interview, Tanuwijaya revealed that his company achieved monthly transactions of about US$291,200. In 2012, it saw 1.2 million items sold per month. That figure ballooned to 6 million items sold per month in 2014 with a 10 to 20 percent monthly growth rate.

Building a company this big and fast requires a lot of hard work and determination. But all this can’t be done without external funding and help from trusted investors. As per our Ask Me Anything (AMA) session with Tanuwijaya last year, the US$100 million funding Tokopedia received from SoftBank and Sequoia Capital is probably one of the best decisions he has ever made.

Here’s what he said in full:

“I’ve been in 7 years relationship, a long distance one with my girlfriend. She studied medicine, and upon her graduation, she wants to go to visit Japan, and asked me to go for holiday with her. But I said no to her, that I can’t take a holiday, as Tokopedia need me, and Tokopedia is almost running out of cash by November. Secretly, I actually bought a ticket, fill a leave form for the first time in 5 years, asked her parent approval, and plan for my secret proposal to her on 1st of October in Osaka.”

“End of September, got a call from SoftBank, that Son-san request for a meeting on early October. Living in Indonesia, you need 5 working days to arrange for VISA, that request were less than 5 working days. But, I already have all the VISA, ticket in the hand. The day after my proposal, I fly to Tokyo to met with Son-san.”

“31st of September, one of my shareholders asked me to meet with Sequoia Capital. I met their partner for 1 hour. On evening, I were on my way to airport for my proposal trip to Osaka, Sequoia venture partner called me and ask for meeting the day after. I told him that am otw to airport going to Osaka. When I arrived at Osaka, the venture partner was also there, took the same flight with me, and ends up chat with me the whole day, almost skip my proposal plan.”

“That same week, 3 proposals happened. And the rest is history.”