Gojek Chief to Step Back to Non-Executive Role Following Merger

Yoolim Lee and Olivia Poh, Bloomberg News

Kevin Aluwi, chief executive officer of Gojek, arrives for GoTo's listing ceremony at the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Monday, April 11, 2022. GoTo, Indonesia’s biggest tech company, surged on its first day of trading after raising $1.1 billion in one of the world’s largest initial public offerings this year. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Kevin Aluwi, co-founder and head of Indonesian ride-hailing service provider Gojek, is set to step back to a non-executive role after helping to carry out the company’s merger that created the enlarged internet giant GoTo Group.

Aluwi, 35, is set to become a commissioner of GoTo Group and its electric-vehicle joint venture Electrum, according to the company’s statement on Monday. GoTo Group Chief Executive Officer Andre Soelistyo, 38, will assume Aluwi’s responsibilities, provided that shareholders approve the changes at GoTo’s annual general meeting on June 28.

The move comes after GoTo Group raised $1.1 billion in one of the world’s largest initial public offerings for 2022. GoTo was formed last year via a merger between Indonesia’s two biggest internet companies -- ride-hailing and food-delivery platform Gojek and e-commerce firm Tokopedia.

Aluwi founded Gojek in Jakarta in 2010 with Nadiem Makarim to arrange courier deliveries in the city. The co-founders launched a motorbike-hailing mobile app in early 2015. Soelistyo joined Gojek as president that year and the company now provides about 20 consumer services.

Aluwi and Soelistyo were named co-CEOs of the ride-hailing company in 2019, when Makarim accepted a minister’s post in Indonesia’s government and resigned form Gojek. Aluwi became the sole head of Gojek when the firm merged with Tokopedia last year.

Prior to founding the ride-hailing company, Aluwi was head of business intelligence at online shopping platform Zalora Indonesia.