Brief: Alibaba rival JD may invest in Indonesia’s Tokopedia

Tokopedia’s William Tanuwijaya speaking on stage at TIA Jakarta 2016.

The news:

• Chinese ecommerce giant JD is in talks to make a major investment in Tokopedia, one of Indonesia’s largest online marketplaces.
• The investment could be worth “hundreds of millions of dollars,” but the negotiation is still early-stage, according to a Bloomberg source.

Why it matters:

• With Alibaba buying a majority stake of Southeast Asian ecommerce company Lazada last year, competition in Indonesia is getting more fierce.
• Backing from Alibaba rival JD could help Tokopedia defend its turf in Indonesia.
• Tokopedia’s last disclosed VC funding was in 2014, when it raised US$100 million from Softbank and Sequoia. In 2016, Tech in Asia‘s sources said it added another US$147 million, but that investment was never confirmed by Tokopedia.

Source: Bloomberg