SE Asia's Grab raises $2b in Toyota-led funding round
Southeast Asia-focused ride-hailing business Grab has raised $2 billion in its latest round of funding led by Japan’s Toyota Motor Corporation and involving a number of other global investors.
Additional participants in the round include Ping An Capital, Oppenheimer Funds, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Macquarie Capital, along with Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, a vehicle established by Mirae Asset Capital and South Korean internet conglomerate Naver to invest in promising Asian start-ups. Grab earlier announced that Toyota would contribute $1 billion to the funding round, which is said to value the company at over $10 billion.
Grab will use the new capital to expand its online-to-offline (O2O) service offering in Southeast Asia, according to a release. The company aims to provide a one-stop solution to meet a wide variety of needs, from cashless payment to online food ordering and parcel delivery, in addition to its signature ride-hailing app, which has been downloaded onto more than 100 million mobile devices. The fleet includes 6.6 million drivers providing over six million rides per day through private car, motorbike, taxi, and carpooling services.
Its services are currently available in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Indonesia, the latter of which has been identified as a strategic priority. Grab recently launched its on-demand grocery delivery service GrabFresh in Jakarta, and has partnered with local wallet and rewards program Ovo to manage a mobile payment network in the country.
Grab’s primary competitor in Indonesia is Go-Jek, which raised $1.5 billion earlier this year in a Series E round with contributions from the likes of Tencent Holdings, JD.com, Meituan-Dianping, and Temasek Holdings. Global rival Uber agreed in March to sell its Southeast Asia operations to Grab.
Toyota has also entered a strategic collaboration with the company, which will include using information from Grab's fleet to analyze how drivers might benefit from connected car services on Toyota’s mobility service platform and rolling out initiatives such as telematics-based insurance. Honda and Hyundai have established similar arrangements with Grab.
SoftBank and Chinese peer Didi Chuxing have also been significant investors in Grab, committing multiple investments between them. The two led Grab’s Series G round last year, which also included commitments from Hyundai and a division of Toyota.
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