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RIDE-HAILING company Grab is taking over US rival Uber Technologies’ operations in Southeast Asia in the largest deal of its kind in Southeast Asia.
Grab chief executive and co-founder Anthony Tan yesterday said Singapore-based Grab would integrate Uber's ride-sharing and food-delivery business in the region into its multi-modal transport and financial technology (fintech) platform.
With the combined business, Grab, which has a high profile in Thailand, aims to be the region’s No 1 online-to-offline mobile platform and a major player in food delivery.
Tan said Grab provides safe and affordable transport, food and package deliveries, mobile payments and financial services. These will be extended as it takes over Uber’s operations and assets in Thailand. Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam.
As part of the acquisition, Uber will take a 27.5 per cent stake in Grab and Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab’s board.
“I would like to personally share with you some of my strongest beliefs, to reaffirm our commitment as a team to our community, as well as to offer a glimpse of what the future holds,” said Tarin Thaniyavarn, country head of Grab Thailand, in a statement released yesterday.
“First of all, as a Southeast Asian and Thai, I believe that this development is a major milestone for all of us, and not just from my perspective as the country head of Grab Thailand,” he said.
“After all, Grab is a Southeast homegrown start-up which started its business in the region less than six years ago and in Thailand, five years ago. Who would have thought that we would be where we are today?
“We are now on track towards our goal of becoming the No1 ride-hailing, food delivery and fintech platform in Southeast Asia, an achievement for all of us as Southeast Asians across eight countries and 195 cities in the region.
“Our partnership with Uber will only fuel our drive and passion to serve our community better. We have always believed – and still believe – that we need to keep outdoing ourselves at every stage in order to earn the right to serve them. If anything, this union strongly affirms that our commitment to put the needs of our customers and driver-partners first is the right one.”
He expects this combination will “drive a better experience for our community” of drivers and users.
“With a greater concentration of jobs and available drivers, we expect to see shorter wait-times and faster pick-ups. This would mean better productivity for our drivers, and better reliability for our passengers,” Tarin. “New Grab users will be able to benefit from our unique features such as GrabRewards for passengers and Better365’for driver-partners. GrabRewards makes our users’ experience more rewarding.
“Meanwhile, our Better365 enables our drivers to enjoy better benefits, support and opportunities to engage with other driver-partners through special periodical workshops, sports day and get-together events. We are so excited to be given this opportunity to serve you all.”
Tarin said the company would be pushing towards its next stage of growth. “This would come from serving Thais in all their most important daily needs, whether to ride, pay, dine or earn more for their families,” he said. “Today, we are already serving 90 million Southeast Asians, and empowering more than five million micro-entrepreneurs – driver-partners, merchants and agents – across the region to earn more.”
