Go-Jek, based out of Indonesia, has acquired Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence startup AirCTO. The acquisition has been made by Go-Jek in order to strengthen its presence in the Indian market. However, the financial terms of the deal are yet to be disclosed.
The AirCTO team will now join Go-Jek with immediate effect as a part of this deal. The acquisition aligns with Go-Jek’s focus on hiring premium talent to support the development of its ‘Super App’ which can be used for availing various services such as ordering food, commuting, digital payments, shopping, and hyper-local delivery through one app, according to the company.
“Over the past three years, we’ve helped a range of startups and corporates source qualified candidates for critical technology roles. We were in talks with a number of other tech giants, but we found Go-Jek to be the best fit, as we share similar DNA – something that’s really important for us,” Atif Haider, founder of AirCTO said.
AirCTO was founded in 2016 by Atif Haider. It is a platform for tech recruitment which uses both human inputs and artificial intelligence to identify IT talents to match the job requirements at a lower cost and in an efficient way.
While, Go-Jek is a transportation network company and logistics startup company based in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Indonesia-based company was founded by Nadiem Makarim in 2010.
The company began services as a bike-taxi service and has since expanded its verticals into food, courier and grocery delivery services in Southeast Asia.
The ride-hailing platform has launched its second engineering and product development centre in Gurugram, plans to hire 100 employees aiming to reach a total headcount of 500 in India by the end of this year.
As part of its expansion plans, it is also considering further acquisitions in India. It is focused on companies with complementary expertise in engineering, design and product management.
“Our investment in Gurugram underlines our commitment to growing the Go-Jek India story. We have looked at multiple ways to expand our operations and concluded that Gurugram is a logical destination to set up shop. With operations underway in Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, we will now consider whether further acquisitions are needed as we seek to bring in entrepreneurial teams who can help us further develop the multi-service business model that makes Go-Jek a leader in Southeast Asia,” said Sidu Ponnappa, MD India at Go-Jek.
It competes with global cab aggregator Uber, and its local challenger Grab in Indonesia.