Tokopedia Co-founder Denies JATAM Report on Mining Business Ownership

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Leontinus Alpha Edison, the co-founder of homegrown e-commerce platform Tokopedia, insisted that he has no mining business, denying the recent report by the Mining Advocacy Network (JATAM).

“It’s not true that I, as a person, have a mining business,” Leon, who now serves as co-captain of the Anies-Muhaimin or AMIN campaign team, told Tempo in Menteng, Jakarta, on Wednesday, Feb. 7.

Recently, JATAM released a report titled ‘Jejaring Oligarki Tambang dan Energi dalam Pemilu’ which exposed the mining and energy oligarchy networks involved in the upcoming general elections.

Based on the report, Leon is said to be indirectly affiliated with Electrum, a company focused on developing the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem. Electrum is a joint venture between PT TBS Energi Utama Tbk (TOBA) owned by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia Tbk (GOTO), the tech giant created by the merger of Tokopedia and Gojek.

Leon and William Tanuwijaya founded Tokopedia in 2009. When Tokopedia merged with Gojek to form GoTo in 2021, he served as a commissioner of Tokopedia. He then resigned from his post after joining the AMIN campaign team to avoid a conflict of interest.

He stressed that he has no authority in Electrum's investment decisions. When the joint venture was formed, he no longer worked for Tokopedia or GoTo. “So, just because one of the top officials at GoTo has a mining business, it doesn’t mean that the entire shareholders and founders can be said to have a mining business as well,” Leon said.

AMELIA RAHIMA SARI

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