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Hello reader,
Just imagine if Mark Zuckerberg were to resign as the CEO of Meta (META, NDAQ) – Facebook’s parent firm – out of the blue. It would send newsrooms across the world into a tailspin.
Well, something similar actually occurred in Indonesia’s public tech sphere last week.
In a surprise shakeup, tech giant GoTo Group (GOTO, IDX) announced that Andre Soelistyo will step down as CEO and be replaced by Patrick Walujo, the founder of private equity firm Northstar Group who currently serves as one of GoTo’s commissioners.
The comparison isn’t as outlandish as it first seems if we look at it from a country perspective. GoTo’s 2020 revenue figure was equivalent to about 2% of Indonesia’s GDP in 2020 while Meta’s 2021 revenue was roughly 0.5% of the US‘ GDP.
“We have always talked about professionalizing the company so that it can move beyond its founders,” Soelistyo, who will become deputy chairman in GoTo’s board of commissioners, said in his farewell letter to staff. A telling quote that hints at the end of the firm’s startup days and signals its transition to a more corporate structure.
Throw out the hoodies and bring in the suits? Well, the market appeared to give its stamp of approval – GoTo’s shares rose about 7.8% on the day of the announcement, albeit they are still trading over 60% below its IPO price.
With the poster child of Indonesian tech businesses undergoing seismic changes at the helm, today’s featured piece sheds light on the current state of the archipelago’s public tech landscape as a whole.
In addition to unpacking the relatively robust performance of ecommerce major Blibli (BELI, IDX) and tracking the roller-coaster journey of minnows such as metaverse builder WIR Group (WIRG, IDX), the premium story lays out a host of big-name firms that are closing in on their market debuts in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
— Shravanth
THE BIG STORY
Image credit: Timmy Loen
Mapping public tech companies in Indonesia (updated)
WIR Group, GoTo Group, Blibli, and Venteny Fortuna International have been added to the list of over 20 public tech companies in Indonesia.
3 Trends to keep an eye on
Hot stocks, earnings reports, restructuring, pressure from activist investors, and more.
2 Eye-popping facts
The ones you didn’t see coming
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