JAKARTA: Shares in Indonesia’s first listed tech unicorn, PT Bukalapak.com, surged 25 per cent on their market debut on Friday (Aug 6) as investors scrambled to get a piece of the country’s fourth-largest e-commerce company in a booming sector.
Bukalapak shares rose to 1,060 rupiah (US$0.0738) after reaching the 25 per cent limit, with tens of thousands of investors buying shares on online platforms such as Ajaib and Stockbit, after the firm raised US$1.5 billion in Indonesia’s biggest IPO, valuing it at US$6 billion.
“This event will create a snowballing effect and show the path for more Indonesia listings,” said Willson Cuaca, a co-founder and managing partner at East Ventures, an Indonesia-focused venture capital firm.
The listing by the decade-old e-commerce platform, whose backers include Ant Group and Singapore sovereign fund GIC, has fuelled excitement in the thriving start-up community, in a region that is home to more than 400 million Internet users.
The IPO comes as Indonesia’s US$40 billion e-commerce market is getting a boost from stay-at-home consumers and a shift by more businesses to sell online in the pandemic.
Investor interest is also running high ahead of a planned multibillion-dollar IPO by GoTo, Indonesia’s most valuable start-up formed through the merger of ride-hailing and food delivery firm Gojek and e-commerce leader Tokopedia.