Uber’s main rival in Southeast Asia is certainly Grab, and they have been making waves in the region claiming their own legions of fans.
Currently available in 31 cities across 6 countries, Grab is offering people an all-inclusive mobile ride-hailing platform that provides private car, motorbike, taxi, and carpooling services, with daily bookings exceeding 1.5 million a day.
Now Southeast Asia’s Number 2 Tech Company
Today Grab announced that they have raised another round equity financing, and it is worth $750 million. With it, it now places the company’s total capital position to over a $1 billion valuation, putting them just behind Garena.
Grab has now become the best capitalized technology startup and mobile internet company in Southeast Asia, and they will seek to leverage this as they plan to expand to more Southeast Asian cities.
Japanese giant Softbank led this new round of expanded, oversubscribed round of funding, together other new and existing investors. They previously led an investment round with Chinese company Didi Chuxing into Grab worth US$600 million.
Of Indonesia And GrabPay
Going forward, CEO Anthony Tan, has said that Grab has shown market leadership and long-term potential in Southeast Asia, thus investor confidence is at an all-time high, and with the support of partners like Softbank, have helped them thrive in emerging markets through technology.
So what next? Indonesia has been mooted as Grab’s new focus as it is home to a third of Southeast Asia’s population. With plans to offer GrabCar, GrabBike, GrabTaxi and GrabFood services focusing on Jakarta first, they are on the path to transform they way people travel and order food there.
In the first half of 2016 alone GrabCar and GrabBike alone saw a 250-fold growth.
The Indonesian connection doesn’t end there. Partnering with Indonesia second largest bank, Mandiri, GrabPay will soon be making its presence known there as well.
This is all part of a grander plan to strengthen the technology and expand the range of local payment solutions available through GrabPay for users across Southeast Asia, with current partners that include Citibank.
Feature Image Credit: Business Insider