Q&A: GrabTaxi's Anthony Tan

Q: To what extent has the pace or nature of GrabTaxi's growth surprised you?

A: We started out with a vision to solve local taxi problems by addressing safety and traffic congestion. Today we work with over 141,000 drivers and our app has been downloaded on almost eight million mobile devices across 26 cities in six Southeast Asian countries. I've focused on taking it one step at a time; expanding into a new city when we have understood the local needs, offering a new transportation option when we ascertain there is a gap in the market. In the past 6-12 months, we have diversified our portfolio - with GrabCar and GrabBike - to give consumers more options, depending on their needs and preferences.

Q: You have raised about $700 million in funding. How is it being used?

It is no coincidence that the leading ride-hailing companies in Southeast Asia, China and India are all local companies

A: We are making strategic investments to extend our market leadership in Southeast Asia. We will continue to invest in important pillars of our business, including increasing our offerings and growing our network to include services such as GrabCar, GrabBike and beta testing a courier service, GrabExpress, in Bangkok and Manila. We also want to improve our technology back-end and expanding our engineering offices, and implement more driver-centric programs to support recruitment and retention.

Q: What are the most challenging aspects of scaling the business?

A: The diversity of the Southeast Asian region, such as language, cultural differences and infrastructure challenges, can make scaling a business difficult. However, it is also our greatest advantage: We grew up here, we understand the nuances of local communities and our engineering and operational resources are focused on solving them. It is no coincidence that the leading ride-hailing companies in Southeast Asia, China and India are all local companies. Our hyper-local strategy means we understand the local issues and are able to leverage this local knowledge to build a viable business model that suits each community. This applies even to cities within the same country. For example, people in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi speak different variants of Vietnamese, and the GrabTaxi app displays different languages for both cities.

Q: How do you strike a balance between offering new services and ensuring existing ones continue to meet expansion targets?

A: Our priority is to ensure that passengers have access to their preferred mode of transportation, whether it is GrabTaxi, GrabCar or GrabBike. We are the only app in this region that offers a diversified portfolio of services under the GrabTaxi platform, allowing users to choose the vehicle type that best suits the current traffic conditions, weather and other factors that may affect how they travel. By segmenting our verticals, it ensures that each vertical is able to grow consistently. There are also dedicated teams for each vertical, so they can dive into the nuances of how customers use services and develop programs that cater to these specific preferences.

Q: When you are approached by new investors interested in participating future funding rounds, what are the key considerations when deciding whether or not to work with?

A: As a start-up, we are always keen to partner with investors that can help us scale our brand quickly and efficiently. This would allow us to continue our pace of growth, provide more transportation options and expand to even more cities in Southeast Asia. We also look for potential investors who are aligned with our hyper-local approach. There is no substitute for being a local in understanding Southeast Asian needs, and the more drivers and passengers using GrabTaxi as their first booking option is affirmation for potential investors as they determine valuation.

Q: How do you feel about GrabTaxi being labeled a unicorn? Does it add to the pressure or is it just a number?

A: The labels are part of the business, as we are the largest player, with the largest land transport fleet, with the most options, in Southeast Asia. Personally my focus is very much on building a great business that provides a much-needed service to the local communities in Southeast Asia. The numbers that matter to me are the number of drivers who can improve their livelihoods using the GrabTaxi app, and the number of passengers who can easily book safe rides every day. Regardless of the size of GrabTaxi, my goal remains the same - to make public transport safe, affordable and reliable to all in Southeast Asia.

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• Topics
• Technology
• Consumer
• Southeast Asia
• Expansion
• People
• Transportation
• TMT
• Consumer
• Southeast Asia
• Growth capital