Grab raises US$1.46B from the SoftBank Vision Fund
Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab today announced a US$1.46 billion investment by the Softbank Vision Fund, bringing in the total financing secured in its Series H round to over US$4.5 billion.
Other investors in this round include Toyota Motor Corporation, Oppenheimer Funds, Hyundai Motor Group, Booking Holdings, Microsoft Corporation, Ping An Capital, and Yamaha Motor.
In a press statement, Grab said that it intends to use the funds to “advance its super app vision” in Southeast Asia.
It plans to expand its verticals –financial services, food delivery, parcel delivery, content, and digital payments– and roll out new services announced in 2018.
Built on GrabPlatform, these services include on-demand video (in partnership with HOOQ), digital healthcare (in partnership with Ping An Good Doctor), insurance (in partnership with ZhongAn International), and hotel bookings (in partnership with Booking Holdings).
The company will also continue to invest in Indonesia, particularly by expanding GrabFood and GrabExpress as well as introducing new verticals in the market.
Grab will use the fresh capital to boost the expansion of GrabFood and GrabExpress and roll out new verticals in the country.
Since its merger with Uber, Grab claimed to have doubled its revenue from March 2018 to December 2018, with GrabFood’s revenue grew 45 times in that time period.
Grab also said that in 2018, Grab Financial Group became the only platform to have access to e-money licenses across six of the largest Southeast Asian economies. Since its launch in March 2018, Grab Financial Group has seen its monthly transactions grow by almost five times to December 2018.
In the same period, GrabExpress also increased instant and same-day delivery volumes by more than three times regionally, and is now available in 150 cities.