Grab bags US$2bn, races for market share in Indonesia

As it consolidates market share in South-east Asia on the back of a takeover of Uber’s operations in the region, Grab has raised US$2 billion from its current financing round, “a significant portion” of which is expected to be invested in Indonesia.

The funding round saw investor Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) joined by global financial institutions, including OppenheimerFunds, Ping An Capital, Mirae Asset – Naver Asia Growth Fund, Cinda Sino-Rock Investment Management Company, All-Stars Investment, Vulcan Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Macquarie Capital and others.

In a statement, Grab said it would use the funds to expand services in South-east Asia. On top of ride hailing for a range of transport modes, its services today include GrabPay, GrabFood for on-demand food delivery and GrabExpress for parcels.

Most recently in July, it entered the on-demand grocery delivery space by launching GrabFresh in Jakarta, with other cities to follow later in 2018.

The company intends to use a significant portion of the proceeds to continue investing in Indonesia.

Grab said it has over 7.1 million “micro-entrepreneurs” on its platform, more than half of whom reside in Indonesia. Through Grab’s partnership with local wallet and rewards programme, OVO, Grab said it has formed the country’s most widely accepted mobile payments ecosystem, with more than 60 million downloads.

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