OVO-lution

The Interview: Rajiv Chandna on OVO’s plan to build an investment flywheel on payments

Piggybacking on Grab and Tokopedia worked for Indonesian e-wallet OVO before. But with the Gojek-Tokopedia merger and a new payments settlement system in the works, it needs a new gameplan

Nadine Freischlad, 18 Feb 2021

E-wallet OVO derives 70-80% of its user base from partners Grab and Tokopedia

Its close link to these major tech platforms saw OVO achieve a US$2.9 billion valuation in less than three years

But Tokopedia is reported to be merging with Gojek, which operates its own e-wallet GoPay. Where does that leave OVO?

Chief commercial officer Rajiv Chandna sees OVO’s next chapter as a financial services app and its strength in “many-to-many” connections

Without e-wallets and e-money, Indonesia’s digital economy wouldn’t be booming. The GMV GMV Gross Merchandise Value The total value of products sold over a given period of time, for example through an e-commerce marketplace of digital transactions jumped from US$8 billion in 2015 to US$44 billion in 2020, according to a report co-authored by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Co.

Before Gojek launched its GoPay wallet in 2016, the only way to pay for services on the transportation and food delivery app was by cash.

AUTHOR

Nadine Freischlad

Nadine is based in Jakarta. She likes stories that capture the impact of digital transformation in Indonesia, with a special fondness for "clicks and bricks" businesses and platform economics. Previous stints with Tech In Asia, KrASIA, bylines in VICE, SCMP, CNN.

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