HONG KONG • Gojek, Indonesia's most valuable start-up, is choosing an adviser to help with fund-raising as it expands rapidly in the competitive South-east Asian ride-hailing industry, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The firm recently asked investment banks to pitch for a role working on its ongoing financing round, according to the people, who asked not to be identified. Gojek could seek to bring in as much as US$2 billion in additional capital from new investors, the people said, which would take the total haul from the current round to around US$3 billion (S$4.1 billion).

Gojek had already raised just over US$1 billion at the first close of the ongoing Series F round, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month. Mitsubishi Corp and Provident Capital also participated, alongside existing investors Google, JD.com and Tencent Holdings.

The Jakarta-based start-up is intensifying its push against larger rival Grab. The two most valuable start-ups in South-east Asia are going head-to-head in everything from ride hailing to mobile payments and food delivery in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

Grab said last month that it raised more than US$3 billion last year as part of its Series H financing round.

South-east Asia's Internet companies raised US$9.1 billion from venture capitalists, private equity firms and corporate investors in the first half of last year, a sum headed for an all-time record, according to a report from Google and Temasek Holdings.

The region's ride-hailing market is expected to reach US$28 billion by 2025 from an estimated US$7.7 billion last year, the report shows.

BLOOMBERG