LINE Indonesia aims to further develop its chatbot platform with the acquisition of TemanJalan

The Indonesian business unit of messenger platform LINE today announced that it has acquired chatbot-based carpooling platform TemanJalan for an undisclosed sum.

In a press statement, LINE explained that the acquisition process has been finalised on November 17.

The startup is the company’s first acquisition in the Indonesian market, which it is in the top five most downloaded Android apps list in 2016, according to a GfK research.

“LINE remains committed to develop chatbot platform in Indonesia, and the acquisition of TemanJalan is a form of our capacity development in the sector,” said LINE Indonesia Managing Director Dale Kim.

“Through TemanJalan, we have gained a new engineering team that can develop our capability in developing chatbot platform, as well as gaining a deep insight about the Indonesian market,” he continued.

TemanJalan focusses on offering carpool matchmaking service for university students. The platform connects university students that are planning to travel on the same route and schedule; the students are then able to arrange their trip using a chat feature.

Starting out as a stand-alone mobile app for Android devices, the startup claimed that they experienced 70 times growth since they embedded their service to the LINE platform.

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Users of the platform are separated into Rider (the person who runs the vehicle) and Hunter (the person who is looking for the ride). The platform implements gamification method that will give Rider points that they can exchange with gas or restaurant vouchers.

In an interview with DailySocial, the startup claimed that the point system can help users to save costs more effectively.

To ensure security, users are required to submit copy of their student ID card during registration.

TemanJalan was founded by Fauzan Helmi Sudaryanto, Caraka Nur Azmi, and Rasmunandar Rustam. The three co-founders graduated from University of Indonesia; they had worked on various projects and products together as students.

It was a runner-up at the Seedstars World Jakarta event in 2015.

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