Wallets/ovo
OVO
0 standards supported
Overview
OVO is Indonesia's leading e-money wallet, originally launched by Lippo Group in 2017 + acquired by Grab in October 2021 (Grab took majority stake) [1, 2, id-cro]. OVO reached 80+ million users, valued at ~$2.9 billion, widely used for ride-hailing (Grab), food delivery, online shopping, and merchant payments. Together with GoPay + DANA + ShopeePay + LinkAja, OVO forms Indonesia's competitive e-wallet super-app landscape. Indonesia's e-money transaction value reached ~$14.1 billion with ShopeePay and OVO being the main players (per Momentum Works research).
History
March 2017 — OVO launches by Lippo Group [2]: Originally a closed-loop wallet for Lippo retail ecosystem.
2018-2020 — Multi-bank + multi-merchant integration [2]: Grew beyond Lippo properties.
October 2021 — Grab acquires majority stake in OVO [1]: Becomes Grab's Indonesia financial-services platform.
2021-2024 — Continued OVO + DANA merger discussions [3]: Speculated multi-year merger of two major Ant-backed Indonesian e-wallets to compete with GoPay.
2024-2025 — Alipay+ enters Indonesia [4]: Discussions for Alipay+ Indonesian-merchant acceptance; potential coexistence/competition with OVO + GoPay.
Ownership & operator
Operating entity: PT Visionet Internasional (OVO) — Indonesian limited company.
Majority shareholder: Grab Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ: GRAB) since October 2021 acquisition.
Other historical shareholders: Lippo Group (founder), Tokyo Century, TenCent (historically).
Regulator: Bank Indonesia (BI) — Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) license; Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) for financial-services supervision.
Valuation: $2.9 billion (post-Grab acquisition).
Technical integration
OVO is Indonesian super-app wallet on QRIS national rail [2, qris-cro]:
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Channel | OVO app (iOS + Android) + embedded within Grab app |
| Identifiers | Phone number + OVO ID + QR code |
| National QR | qris universal acceptance |
| Settlement | Indonesian interbank + Grab ecosystem |
| Grab ecosystem integration | Native payment for GrabFood + GrabRide + GrabMart + GrabExpress |
Users & growth
- Users: 80+ million
- Indonesia e-money transaction value (recent): ~$14.1 billion (ShopeePay + OVO main players)
- Valuation: $2.9 billion (post-Grab acquisition)
Use cases
P2P transfers [2]: Cardinal use.
Merchant QR payments via QRIS [qris-cro]: Universal Indonesian merchant acceptance.
Grab ecosystem payments (GrabFood, GrabRide, GrabMart, GrabExpress) [1]: Native Grab payment.
Online shopping (Tokopedia, Bukalapak, others) [2]: E-commerce.
Bill payment + utilities [2]: Indonesian services.
Mobile top-ups [2]: Multi-MNO.
Lippo Mall retail (heritage) [2]: Original closed-loop use case still active.
Investments + insurance [2]: Multi-product financial services.
Implementations & partners
Operator: PT Visionet Internasional.
Majority shareholder: Grab Holdings Ltd.
Historical shareholders: Lippo Group, Tokyo Century, Tencent.
National QR rail: qris (BI + ASPI national standard).
Major Indonesian competitors:
- GoPay (GoTo Financial).
- DANA (Ant-backed).
- ShopeePay (Sea Group).
- LinkAja (state-owned consortium).
Regulator: BI + OJK.
Fun facts
- Launched March 2017 by Lippo Group as closed-loop retail wallet.
- October 2021 Grab acquisition — became Grab's Indonesia financial-services arm.
- 80M+ users + $2.9B valuation.
- Indonesia e-money market $14.1B with ShopeePay + OVO as main players.
- OVO-DANA merger speculation persists for years — both Ant-backed wallets potentially combining vs GoPay.
- Grab ecosystem integration — OVO is default Grab Indonesia payment.
- Lippo Group heritage — major Indonesian conglomerate, original closed-loop integration.
- Tencent's historical OVO stake — illustrates Chinese-fintech competition in Indonesia.
Comparison
| Feature | OVO | GoPay (ID competitor) | DANA (ID, Ant-backed) | ShopeePay (ID) | [[gcash]] (PH analogous) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | PT Visionet Internasional (Grab-majority) | GoTo Financial | DANA (Ant-backed) | Sea Group | G-Xchange (Mynt) |
| Country | Indonesia | Indonesia | Indonesia | Indonesia | Philippines |
| Users | 80M+ | Major | Major | Major | 81M |
| Heritage | Lippo Group (retail) | GoJek (ride-hailing) | Ant Financial JV | Sea Group (Shopee) | Globe Telecom (telecom) |
| Major investor | Grab Holdings | GoTo + Tencent | Ant Financial | Sea Group | Globe + Ant + Ayala + MUFG |
| Valuation | $2.9B | n/a | n/a | n/a | $5B |
Status
Active, leading Indonesian wallet [1, 2]:
- PT Visionet Internasional operator since 2017; Grab majority since October 2021.
- 80M+ users + $2.9B valuation.
- QRIS-integrated universal Indonesian merchant acceptance.
- Indonesia e-money landscape: OVO + ShopeePay main players ($14.1B market).
Sources
- 1 Grab majority stake OVO — Finovate
- 2 ID e-wallets explained — Transfi
- 3 OVO-DANA merger discussions — Yahoo
- 4 ID e-money $14.1B — Momentum Works
- id-cro In-corpus:
reports/countries/ID-indonesia.md - qris-cro In-corpus:
reports/standards/qris.md
Source
Biography extracted from ovo.md. See matrix.md for standards-support matrix if present.