OVO (payment service)

OVO, officially a product of PT Visionet International, is a digital payment service based in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was established in 2017 with an e-money license from Bank Indonesia, and in 2019 was Indonesia's top digital payment service.[1] Owned by Grab and local investors,[2] in 2019, OVO became Indonesia's first finance-tech business unicorn.

History

OVO was founded by Lippo Group and received permission to operate as a fintech company throughout Indonesia on 25 September 2017 with an e-money license for Bank Indonesia.[3] OVO is a product of PT Visionet International, which is the digital financial services subsidiary of the Lippo Group. OVO debuted a digital wallet in September of 2017. In December 2017, it was announced that Tokyo Century Corporation had invested US$116 million for a 20% stake in the startup.[4] OVO added new financial services in 2018 and Grab invested in the company.[5]

In March 2019, Indonesian e-commerce company Tokopedia invested in OVO.[6] That month, OVO's value was estimated at US$2.9 billion by CB Insights.[7] In October 2019, the Minister of Communications and Information, Rudiantara announced that OVO had become the fifth official Indonesian unicorn[7] after Gojek, Traveloka, Bukalapak and Tokopedia.[2] OVO was also recognized as Indonesia's first finance-tech business unicorn.[8] PT Visionet International shareholders appointed Karaniya Dharmasaputra as president director of the company in 2019, replacing Andrian Suherman, who had led OVO for three years.[9] In 2021, Grab increased its stake in OVO to 79.5%, acquiring Tokopedia and Lippo Group's shares together with a number of local investors.

In October of 2021, Grab bought out Tokopedia and raised its stake in OVO to 90% in the process, also buying stakes from Lippo Group.[10] Dyak NK Makhijani became President Commissioner at PT Visionet International in August of 2022, after Mirza Adityaswara left the OVO board of commissioners. At that time, 90% of OVO was owned by Grab.[11] As a digital payment platform, in September 2023 it is reported that OVO will be available in 600 cities and districts in Indonesia with a total of 1.5 million users.[12]

Products and services

OVO's core business is digital payment based on its e-money license. According to a 2021 report by research company Kadence International, at the time OVO was the leading e-money / digital wallet in Indonesia[13][14][15] for both online and offline transactions.

Also involved in financial services, OVO offers lending services through Taralite (PT Indonusa Nusa Sejahtera), a P2P lending company that it acquired in 2019,[16] as well as investment products under OVO | Invest and insurance products under OVO | Proteksi in collaboration with partners.[17]

OVO works with companies for these financial services products such as Adira Finance (a member of MUFJ Group),[18] Bank BRI,[19] Manulife Aset Manajemen Indonesia,[20] and Prudential Indonesia.[21]

See also

• List of unicorn startup companies
• List of Indonesian inventions and discoveries

External links