With more than 400,000 authorised agents in 500 towns and cities across Indonesia, Kudo enables ‘unbanked’ consumers to shop online through its network of online merchants and service providers. On this front, Grab plans to support and accelerate Kudo’s agent network, in addition to leveraging on its reach to bring more riders, drivers and GrabPay users. The acquisition will also see to the exploration of growing Kudo’s financial services offering to include insurance and consumer loans.

This acquisition marks the first investment of Grab’s recently announced ‘Grab 4 Indonesia’ 2020 master plan, a commitment to invest US$700 million in Indonesia over the next four years to further develop its digital economy through the promotion of technology innovation, driving ‘technopreneurship’ in mobile technologies and financial services, and improving access to mobile payments and financing opportunities.

According to TechCrunch, the Grab-Kudo acqusition is a mix of cash and equity, and is potentially worth up to US$100 million, while Reuters reports that it is worth more than that.

“Combining Kudo’s innovative O2O e-commerce solution and extensive agent network with GrabPay and Grab’s massive and active customer base will advance our mission of providing millions of people across Indonesia with increased access to convenient cashless payments and new income opportunities, while also unlocking compelling new ways to boost online spending. Kudo’s integration represents an important first step in our ‘Grab 4 Indonesia’ plan to provide all Indonesians an opportunity to move into the digital economy,” says Ming Maa, President of Grab.

Albert Lucius, CEO of Kudo adds: “Grab shares our vision of creating payments solutions that empower the unbanked to benefit from the rapid growth of ecommerce, and we look forward to embarking on the next stage of our growth as part of the Grab team.”