Deep Dive: How GoTo’s IPO went down

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GoTo Group, the new entity formed through the Gojek-Tokopedia merger last year, listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange this month.

While the company’s shares quickly soared past its initial offering price, it also fell just as quickly in a manner reminiscent of the recent public listings of other Southeast Asian firms such as Bukalapak and Grab.

Is this just how Southeast Asian tech stocks perform on the public markets? On this episode of Deep Dive, Tech in Asia journalists Ardi Wirdana and Aditya Hadi Pratama discuss GoTo’s IPO and what its performance might mean for the wider tech and startup scene in Southeast Asia.

Timecodes:

00:00 – Intro music
00:47 – Today’s topic: GoTo’s IPO
01:31 – When we first heard of GoTo’s plans to go public
02:37 – What makes GoTo’s IPO stand out amid the many companies going public
04:07 – How Grab and Bukalapak’s IPOs affected the public’s perception of GoTo’s public listing
06:22 – GoTo’s valuation outlook
08:20 – Was it a bad time for GoTo to list?
09:32 – How GoTo’s stock price performed initially
11:04 – GoTo’s financial health prior to its listing
15:03 – The eventual decline of GoTo’s share price
19:07 – The future of GoTo as a public company
23:20 – What IPO hopefuls can learn from GoTo’s experience

Featured reporters:

• Ardi Wirdana, a Tech in Asia journalist based in Jakarta
• Aditya Hadi Pratama, a Tech in Asia journalist based in Jakarta

Essential reading:

• GoTo Group’s financial health in 4 charts
• GoTo’s IPO numbers split opinions, but investors may warm to share price
• GoTo begins $1.1b IPO process
• Org Chart: The people leading GoTo Group
• GoTo shares up by 15% in initial trading, giving valuation of $32b
• GoTo’s shares decline to IPO price, triggering greenshoe option
• GoTo IPO marks win for 2 early SEA VCs, and may supercharge the region’s VC scene

Episode Transcript:

Nathaniel Fetalvero (VO):
Hello and welcome to Deep Dive, a show where we discuss the biggest headlines to hit the startup scene with the journalists who broke the stories.