S.Korea's Mirae Asset, Naver to invest in Indonesia's Bukalapak (updated)

Mirae Asset Securities

16/01/2019 09:33

(Adds Bukalapak executive comments, context)
    SEOUL, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A fund led by South Korea's Mirae
Asset Daewoo  006800.KS  and web portal Naver Corp  035420.KS 
will invest $50 million in Indonesian e-commerce startup
Bukalapak, Mirae Asset said on Wednesday. 
    The Asia Growth Fund jointly set up by Mirae Asset and Naver
Corp is seeking exposure in the fast-growing online commerce
industry in the Southeast Asian country.
    Surging smartphone use and a rising middle-class income in
Indonesia, home to 260 million people, have made its e-commerce
industry a battleground for foreign investors.
    Spending in the Indonesian e-commerce market is projected by
consultancy McKinsey to reach as much as $65 billion by 2022
from $8 billion in 2017.
    "Naver is very strong in technology, so there is a lot we
can learn from them," Teddy Oetomo, chief strategy officer at
Bukalapak, said by telephone.
    Bukalapak expects to break even in three years, as it adds
new product segments and expands coverage in small towns, Oetomo
previously told Reuters.
    The company, which counts Singapore sovereign wealth fund
GIC Pte and China's Ant Financial among its investors, became a
unicorn - or a firm valued at $1 billion or above without
tapping the public market - after its last fundraising round in
late 2017.

 (Reporting by Ju-min Park and Ed Davies in JAKARTA; Editing by
Subhranshu Sahu)
 ((ju-min.park@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5650; Reuters
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