Gojek reshuffles management to double down on payments service

Gojek, the ride-hailing and payments operator, said that it will go through a managerial reshuffle to double down on its e-wallet business as customers and merchants rapidly move toward digital payments.

Andre Soelistyo, the company’s co-CEO, will now be taking over Gojek’s payment arm GoPay. He will replace current GoPay CEO Aldi Haryopratomo who will leave the company at the start of January 2021.

Soelistyo’s counterpart Kevin Aluwi will run Gojek’s other services, which include transport, food, logistics, and the company’s third-party platform.

Right: Andre Soelistyo, CEO of Gojek / Photo credit: Gojek

The company said in a statement that these changes are operational only and do not affect the group’s structure.

The Indonesia-based startup is now streamlining its payments business after the company stemmed losses from key services such as ride hailing and delivery due to a pandemic-induced slump in the economy.

Gojek’s payment service will be divided into three units: payments, business solutions, and financial services. All of them will be under Soelistyo.

“What has become clear is that the two elements of our company – Gojek’s operations and the payments and financial services – have become increasingly distinct, with each requiring different expertise and focus, and we should arrange our teams to optimize for this,” the company’s co-CEOs said in a statement.

The development also comes after Gojek announced last week that it’s generating positive gross margins a decade since the company’s incorporation.

Last month, the two Southeast Asian super apps Grab and Gojek restarted discussions on a possible merger, which was backed by SoftBank’s CEO Masayoshi Son.

Gojek now has about 38 million monthly active users across Southeast Asia, and its gross transaction value has exceeded its pre-pandemic levels, highlighting the surge in demand for its online services.

Indonesia’s digital payments sector in terms of total transaction value is expected to reach US$35.7 billion in 2020. It is expected to grow further to US$64 billion by 2024, according to data by Statista.

See also: Analysis: Facebook, PayPal will help Gojek win Indonesia, but not Southeast Asia

This week, Gojek also announced that it raised US$150 million from PT Telekomunikasi Selular, Indonesia’s biggest wireless network provider.