We think of Grab mostly as a ride-hailing app in day to day life, but the firm does much more, from food delivery to financial services.
Grab Financial was set up in March 2018 as the fintech arm of the tech company’s ecosystem, encompassing payment and reward services, and newly adding loans and insurance.
Its loan capability has been made possible by Grab’s partnership with Japanese consumer financing company, CreditSaison.
A year later, Grab is now offering loans of up to S$100,000 to small businesses.
According to SGSME.SG, the company had been advertising this loan option on Facebook earlier this week, with an interest rate of 1% per month.
Interested parties can apply for the loan online in a process that will only take about two minutes to complete.
Upon a successful loan application, they’ll then be able to receive the money in three days.
While its financial loans were introduced for both consumers and businesses, Grab says the focus of this new initiative is to support “micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses”.
A Grab spokesperson says the company wants to provide “working capital support which [they] know is a key area of concern” as small businesses try to scale up.
However, the firm has yet to reveal other details like the initiative’s launch date, loan volume, and assessment criteria at this point.
