Internet economy in Southeast Asia is being driven up by a new round of funding into Grab, a leading on-demand transportation and mobile payments platform founded in Malaysia.
Two large technology investors Didi Chuxing or DiDi another ride-sharing app together with perennial start-up investor will invest up to US$2.0 billion or RM8.6 billion into Grab making the company the largest recipient of single funding in the region.
The aim of this round of funding and another US$500 million Grab will be sourcing from elsewhere is to further expand the service across cities offer ease of transportation for the 600 million people residing in Southeast Asia. Grab is by far the most dominant on-demand transportation platform in the region with a market share of 95% in third-party taxi-hailing and 71% in private vehicle hailing. The company will also continue to strengthen its position and invest in GrabPay, its proprietary mobile payments solution.
Anthony Tan, Group CEO and Co-founder, said, “We are delighted to deepen our strategic partnership with DiDi and SoftBank. With their support, Grab will achieve an unassailable market lead in ridesharing, and build on this to make GrabPay the payment solution of choice for Southeast Asia.”
Grab is currently available in 65 cities across 7 countries clocking nearly 3 million daily rides, the app has been downloaded over 50 million times.
