Tag: Strategy

Brent Lewin | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Grab logo is displayed on a taxi in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday, March 9, 2018.

Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab said Wednesday it has secured $1.46 billion in new funds from the SoftBank Vision Fund.

In its current funding round, Grab has raised more than $4.5 billion with investments from car makers Toyota and Hyundai Motor, tech giant Microsoft, China's Ping An Capital and U.S.-based asset management company OppenheimerFunds.

Following the fresh financing from the Vision Fund, Grab's valuation now stands at $14 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Grab President Ming Maa said in a statement the company has seen “overwhelming shareholder support in our current fundraising round, with strong interest both in terms of capital invested and the quality of strategic partners.”

He added Grab continues to “receive new investor interest” and that it looks forward to “welcoming more global industry leaders as partners in 2019.”

The current funding round started after U.S. ride sharing giant Uber sold its Southeast Asia business to Grab and acquired a 27.5 percent stake in the business, according to Reuters.

Grab said it plans to use the funds to build more everyday services onto its platform and expand its presence in financial services, food delivery, parcel delivery, content and digital payments.

“This investment will help the company explore exciting new opportunities across on-demand mobility, delivery and financial services as it continues to grow its offline-to-online platform across Southeast Asia,” David Thevenon, partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said in a statement.

While Grab started out with ride-hailing, the start-up has over time introduced many services including food and grocery delivery, mobile payment, and micro-lending to the unbanked or underbanked in Southeast Asia. Earlier this year, the company said it struck a partnership with regional video streaming start-up Hooq that will allow users to stream movies and TV shows on the Grab app.

The idea of bundling multiple services inside a single app stems from the fact that users tend to use only a handful of applications everyday, even if they might have hundreds of apps downloaded onto their smartphones.

Last year, Grab said it was forming a joint venture company with Chinese health care services platform Ping An Good Doctor to provide integrated medical services including artificial intelligence-assisted online consultations, appointment bookings and medicine delivery.