Grab, the local ride hailing service, has raised US$750 million in equity financing effectively increasing its total capital position to over US$1 billion. This makes the start-up the first unicorn to spurn out of Southeast Asia.  This recent investment was made by long time partner, SoftBank the Japan based investment arm that is know to cherry pick sound technology company’s and has since grown its reputation to its investors.

Grab is a mobile platform for ride hailing and now has over 1.5 million daily bookings in this region, starting with just taxi’s the service now offers private car, motorbike, taxi, and carpooling services across 6 countries and 31 cities in Southeast Asia. Going forward, Grab will leverage its US$1 billion capital position to continue expanding its transportation services in Southeast Asia, home to 620 million people, and a rising population of middle class and mobile users, especially in Indonesia. In addition, Grab will also significantly invest in mobile payments capabilities, to enable a seamless daily transaction experience in a region with low banking and credit card penetration and limited cashless payment options.

Since its Series E funding in August 2015, Grab has nearly quadrupled its total number of drivers and active users, as well as rides volume. Today, the Grab app has been downloaded onto over 21 million mobile devices and users have access to over 400,000 drivers to meet their transportation needs