After months of speculation, Grab announced today that it has acquired Uber’s Southeast Asia operations.
With this, Grab will be integrating Uber’s ride-sharing and food delivery business in the region into Grab’s existing ecosystem.
Grab will be taking over Uber’s operations and assets in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
As part of the acquisition, Uber will take a 27.5% stake in Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab’s board.
This deal is said to be the largest-ever of its kind in Southeast Asia.
Said Anthony Tan, Group CEO and co-founder of Grab, “We are humbled that a company born in SEA has built one of the largest platforms that millions of consumers use daily and provides income opportunities to over 5 million people.”
“Today’s acquisition marks the beginning of a new era. […] Together with Uber, we are now in an even better position to fulfil our promise to outserve our customers. Their trust in us as a transport brand allows us to look towards the next step as a company: improving people’s lives through food, payments and financial services.”
Added Tan Hooi Ling, co-founder of Grab, “We will rapidly and efficiently expand GrabFood into all major SEA countries in the next quarter.”
“GrabFood will also be another great use case to drive the continued adoption of GrabPay mobile wallet and support our growing financial services platform.”
Said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, “This deal is a testament to Uber’s exceptional growth across Southeast Asia over the last five years.”
It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology to create the best customer experience on the planet.
Grab As “SEA’s Leading Online-To-Offline Mobile Platform”
Consumers can look forward to these developments:
Food delivery
Grab will rapidly expand its existing GrabFood businesses in Indonesia and Thailand to two more countries – Singapore and Malaysia – following the integration of the Uber Eats business.
GrabFood will be available across all major Southeast Asian countries in the first half of 2018.
Transportation
Grab will grow its core transport offering to include more localised transport services and new mobility solutions, in partnership with other transport providers and automakers.
Grab will also collaborate with governments and public transport operators to link public transport services and create seamless and integrated multi-modal commuter experiences.
The recently announced GrabCycle marketplace for shared bicycles and personal mobility devices, and GrabShuttle Plus for on demand bus routes are pilots toward this vision.
Payments and financial services
Grab will continue to enhance and expand its suite of offerings under Grab Financial, including mobile payments, micro-financing, insurance and other financial services for millions of underserved and unbanked consumers, micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses in the region.
GrabPay as a mobile wallet will be available across all major Southeast Asian countries by the end of the year.
Migrating From Uber Users And Partners To Grab’s Platform
Currently, Grab and Uber are working to migrate both Uber drivers and riders, Uber Eats customers, merchants, and delivery partners to the Grab platform.
The Uber app will continue to operate for two weeks to ensure stability for Uber drivers, who can find out how to sign-up to drive with Grab online.
Uber Eats will run until the end of May, after which Uber delivery and restaurant partners will move to the GrabFood platform.