SoftBank invests $250m in Southeast Asia’s GrabTaxi
Japanese tech giant SoftBank Corp. has committed $250 million to GrabTaxi, becoming the largest investor in the Southeast Asia-focused mobile taxi-booking platform.
The latest round brings the total raised by the company over the past 14 months to $340 million. GrabTaxi's previous round, which closed in October, was led by Tiger Global Management, while GGV Capital led a $15 million Series B round in May. Vertex Venture, a unit of Temasek, led the Series A round in April.
GrabTaxi - known in Malaysia as MyTeksi - was launched in 2012 by Antony Tan and Hooi Ling Tan. Through an app, users can book taxis operated by any provider, identifying which cars are nearest and which are most reliable. These assessments are based on variables such as distance, amount of traffic and consumer feedback.
The app has been downloaded onto more than 2.5 million mobile devices.
"In two short years, GrabTaxi has become the dominant player in Southeast Asia's taxi booking mobile app industry, which is a testament to Antony's outstanding leadership. We look forward to working with his talented team and supporting GrabTaxi's further expansion in the region," Nikesh Arora, vice chairman of SoftBank, said in a statement.
Over the past year, number of taxi drivers registered in the network has increased four-fold to 60,000, while mobile active users have grown six-fold to 500,000. An average of three taxi bookings are made every second, which represents a nine-fold improvement.
GrabTaxi now covers 17 cities across six countries in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia.
The company expects to leverage SoftBank's expertise in mobile and internet platforms to further accelerate its growth in Southeast Asia. "This new round of funding will help drive our mission of revolutionizing and improving the way Southeast Asians commute more aggressively than ever before," said Tan.
The investment in GrabTaxi comes two months after SoftBank led a $100 million funding round for Indonesian online marketplace Tokopedia. In the same month, it agreed to invest $627 million in Indian e-commerce site Snapdeal and also led a $210 Series D round of funding for Ola, a taxi-booking app in the country.
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