Venture capital firm GDP Ventures is currently in talks to acquire more than 50 percent of shares in Indonesian online travel agent Tiket.com.
If successful, the investment into Tiket.com will be the second strategic investment that GDP Venture made this year, after its US$550 million financing in Singaporean shopping and online gaming company Garena, which has recently rebranded as Sea.
The Founder and CEO of Tiket.com, Mikhael Gaery Undarsa refuses to comment on the talks between the two companies but acknowledges that it is now in the process of engagement with GDP.
Established in 2011 by Wenas Agusetiawan, Dimas Surya Yaputra, Natail Ardianto, and Mikhael Gaery Undarsa, Tiket.com along with Traveloka are the two leading online travel agents in the Indonesian market.
The travel startup provides hotel booking services, airline tickets, train tickets, car rentals, and others. In 2015, the startup has reported over 100 percent growth from its airline and hotel bookings.
The startup is also known for having never opened an early stage investment with the only funding, thus far, being a seed investment that came from an undisclosed angel investor, said to be related to the Emtek Group family.
Meanwhile, GDP Ventures is a business unit of Djarum Group for the field in internet business under the management of CEO Martin Hartono. GDP holds a major share of Kaskus.co.id and a number of startups in Indonesia.
Its portfolio companies are mainly in the e-commerce and digital media sectors such as e-commerce platform Blibli and community platform Kaskus.
Earlier this year, Tiket.com has made headlines across national media when a group of hackers successfully broke into its system. The startup lost about US$300,000 worth of airline tickets through the incident.
