SoftBank Vision Fund invests $1.5b in SE Asia's Grab

Grab has been raising its Series H round, which values the company at more than $10 billion, for the better part of a year. Participants in the round include a number of strategic investors such as Japanese car makers Toyota Motor Corporation and Yamaha Motor, as well as technology-focused players like Microsoft and travel site operator Booking Holdings.

The company also recently received a $200 million commitment from Thai retail conglomerate Central Group aimed at building up collaboration in areas such as food delivery, logistics, and transportation. However, since this investment was in Grab’s Thai entity and not the overall company it is not part of the Series H round.

Grab was founded in 2012 and built its profile in Southeast Asia through its signature ride-hailing app, which Grab now claims to be present in 336 countries across eight countries. However, since purchasing the Southeast Asia operations of global rival Uber last March, the company has focused on expanding its O2O offering to include a broader rage of services such as food delivery, last-mile logistics, financial services, and electronic payments.

“We could develop a daily lifestyle service because the Grab brand is trustable. It’s all about the relationships you develop with customers,” Ming Maa, Grab’s president, told AVCJ late last year. “Ride-sharing helped us do that because we’re engaging with customers every day instead of just once a month like some other online businesses. That’s especially important in payments because if you’re storing your money in a wallet, you have to know that the service provider will always be there.”

Grab plans to commit a significant portion of the new capital to Indonesia, where it claims to be the leader in on-demand transport with 60% of the two-wheeler market and 70% of the four-wheel market. The company will accelerate the expansion of its food and logistics services in the country and introduce new verticals.

Indonesia is also home to Go-Jek, Grab's biggest rival, which raised $1 billion last month in the first phase of its Series F round. Existing investors Google, JD.com, and Tencent Holdings contributed to the round, with additional participation from the likes of Mitsubishi Corporation, Provident Capital, and Indonesian conglomerate Astra International. The Series F round is expected to raise around $2 billion in all and will value Go-Jek at up to $10 billion.

SoftBank Vision Fund reached a first close of over $93 million in 2017, and targets majority and minority positions in public and private technology companies. Its portfolio in Southeast Asia includes Indonesian e-commerce and online services provider Tokopedia; the fund joined a $1.1 billion Series G round for the company last year alongside China’s Alibaba Group and other investors.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Technology
• Consumer
• Expansion
• Grab
• Softbank
• TMT
• Transportation
• Logistics
• Financial Services