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Asian ride-hailing service Grab gets $2B to take on Uber
Singapore-based ridesharing service Grab is looking to go head-to-head with Uber Technologies Inc. in Southeast Asia, and today the company got a major boost for that effort with $2 billion in financing from Didi Chuxing and SoftBank Group Corp.
According to Grab, this is the largest funding round in the region’s history, and the company said in a statement that it anticipates raising an additional $500 million in financing. This would put Grab’s total funding to date at nearly $4 billion, and its valuation has now reportedly reached $6 billion.
Founded in 2012, Grab offers on-demand transportation in several Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar. Like other ride-hailing services, Grab uses contractors for its drivers rather than employees, and its app matches up drivers with passengers.
The company plans to use its new funding to continue strengthening its dominant position in the region, and it also plans on investing in its mobile payment solution, GrabPay.
“We are delighted to deepen our strategic partnership with DiDi and SoftBank,” said GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd. co-founder and Chief Executive Anthony Tan (pictured). “We’re encouraged that these two visionary companies share our optimism for the future of Southeast Asia and its on-demand transportation and payments markets, and recognize that Grab is ideally positioned to capitalize on the massive market opportunities.”
Grab said its service is used to order more than 3 million rides a day, and its fleet includes more than 1.1 million drivers. The company also said its GrabPay service has grown by 80 percent since its launch in December.
In a statement, Didi founder and CEO Cheng Wei praised Grab for its “truly local insight,” which he says gives it an advantage over rival services. Didi has been working hard to push Uber out of Asia, and last year the company bought Uber China and formed an alliance with other ride-hailing services against Uber. These alliances allow users to order rides from different services using the same app they are used to. This is similar to the alliance recently formed by Uber with Russian ride-hailing service Yandex.
Photo: Grab
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