“We are already moving along with the journey and processes that we need to improve, to be able to be at that world class standard that global public companies are at, so we've done a lot of things in building better governance,” he said.

Investors and analysts alike are watching the leadership transition closely as the firm continues to compete with rival Grab in the region.

Ride-hailing surprise as Gojek’s Makarim steps down to join Indonesian cabinet

“Kevin and Andre have mentored me to be the leader I am today. They are quite simply Gojek’s best,” said Makarim in a letter sent to Gojek staff on Wednesday.

“They have been running this company for a number of years and I have complete faith not just in their technical skills and ability to execute flawlessly, but also in their integrity and their desire to do the right thing every step of the way.”

In 2014, Gojek introduced a mobile app that allowed users to book rides, and later expanded to a variety of services including payments, as well as on-demand services such as food delivery. But the departure of Makarim, who has long been the face of Gojek, comes at a critical juncture for the ride sharing company.

Over the past year it has attempted to expand regionally to markets such as Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore, breaking away from a singular focus on home turf Indonesia as it remains locked in competition with Singapore-based Grab – a rival that had a head start in regional expansion.

Gojek’s regional expansion has not always been smooth. Its Vietnam affiliate Go-Viet has seen several top executives leave after less than a year, and Grab remains the market leader in Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand. Gojek also faces questions about its strategy to appoint co-CEOs at a time when it is fighting to keep up with market leader Grab.

“The co-CEO model will be a challenge for Gojek going forward,” said Chua Kee Lock, chief executive of Singapore venture capital firm Vertex Ventures, which was an early investor in Grab.

“This doesn’t usually happen at most companies. Usually [they] make the best bet [on who should be CEO].”

Chua pointed out that a co-CEO model could hinder quick response time when it comes to decision-making, especially in industries like ride-hailing, food-delivery and payments where the conditions can be constantly changing.

A company losing its founder can also be a difficult thing to navigate, especially since they tend to embody the spirit of the company, according to Li Jianggan, founder and chief executive of Momentum Works, an early-stage start-up accelerator in Singapore.

“I’ve been a co-CEO before and while it’s good to have someone to share that responsibility, during critical times the decision-making can be challenging,” said Li, adding that often investors will think twice about investing in companies that do not have a clear leader.

But Gojek’s investors appear to be less worried about the handover. Hian Goh, co-founder and partner at backer Openspace Ventures, said Gojek is a company that plays a “team sport”.

“Andre and Kevin, as well as many other members of the management have been a quiet foundation stone in executing Nadiem’s vision for the company,” he said. “The fact that the transition has been so smooth and the succession has taken place without much fanfare is testament to the depth of the management team and the resilience of the company and the people running it today.”

Gojek’s Aluwi said on Thursday that the company looked at a number of different companies globally that had a de facto co-CEO model.

“The company we've built so far is very complex because we're pushing in multiple different directions, in multiple different businesses in multiple different geographies and in reality even if we did not want to call it a co-CEO model it would fundamentally operate similar to [that],” he said.

Soelistyo added that he and Aluwi were “very complementary on skill sets and experience perspective.”

Both Gojek CEOs released a statement earlier this week emphasising that there will be “no disruption” in day-to-day operations. Soelistyo, who had been president of the company, will oversee corporate functions, fundraising, international expansion and Gojek’s payments and financial services business, while co-founder Aluwi will take charge of product development, marketing, organisation development as well as transport and food delivery.

“We congratulate Andre, Kevin and Nadiem on each of their new roles within and outside Gojek, and we’re excited to see the company continue to pursue its bold vision for growth under the very capable leadership of Andre and Kevin,” said Ashish Shastry, head of Southeast Asia at investment firm KKR which has backed Gojek.

Makarim told employees that his two successors have always been the “steady voices of reason, approaching problems with intelligence and compassion”.