Singapore's VC-backed Grab commits $100m to Myanmar

It comes five months after an initial launch in Yangon, where Grab now claims to have the city's largest licensed taxi network, including some 6,000 drivers. The company, which offers transportation services in seven Southeast Asia countries, plans to expand its operational portfolio of 87 cities while building a Myanmar team of around 200 people and rolling out associated products such as GrabPay.

"This is already one of our fastest-growing markets, and we are very excited to deepen our commitment into Myanmar," Anthony Tan, Grab's co-founder and CEO, said in a statement.

Grab's app has been downloaded onto more than 55 million mobile devices since the company was founded in 2012, giving users access to a fleet of about 1.2 million drivers that provide nearly three million rides every day. The company claims to have a 95% market share in third-party taxi-hailing and 71% in private vehicle hailing.

Last month, Grab received $2 billion from Chinese peer Didi Chuxing and SoftBank as part of a funding round that is expected to reach $2.5 billion. It has raised more than $1 billion from private investors to date, including Tiger Global, China Investment Corporation, GGV Capital, Hillhouse Capital and Vertex Ventures.

Other recent expansion activity includes a bolt-on of Indonesian e-commerce player Kudo that was reportedly valued at around $100 million. This followed the company's launch of a $100 million Indonesia-focused VC fund. Grab is planning to invest about $700 million in the country over the next four years.  

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Expansion
• Myanmar
• Venture
• TMT
• automobiles