Coins is far from mint condition despite Gojek acquisition

The Filipino e-wallet has struggled to compete with its Alibaba- and Tencent-backed rivals, but is now banking on new financial regulations to level the playing field

Gojek’s acquisition of Coins for $95 million in January 2019 was supposed to be a shot in the arm for the Filipino e-wallet

However, the duo are yet to realise the benefits of their alliance, as the Indonesian super app struggles with its overseas expansion

Coins’ rivals GCash and PayMaya, backed by Alibaba and Tencent, have raced ahead, especially in the QR code payments space

However, all is not lost for Coins, as it hopes some regulatory reforms can level the playing field between small and large e-wallets

It’s been more than a year since Indonesia’s $10-billion ride-hailing firm Gojek acquired Filipino mobile wallet startup Coins in what The Ken learnt was a $95 million deal. One would expect a lot of synergies between the two companies by now.

Instead, Coins appears to have fallen behind its rivals GCash and PayMaya—owned by powerful telcos Globe and PLDT respectively—in the race to become the Philippines’ top super app super app Super App An app that covers a bevy of consumer needs, from shopping to rides, logistics, bill payments, money transfers, and so on .

AUTHOR

Jum Balea

Jum is a Manila-based reporter for The Ken, where she covers startups and business across Southeast Asia, with a focus on the Philippines. She previously was editor for Tech In Asia, and business editor for Philippine media companies Rappler and ABS-CBN.

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