Charting Grab’s financial progress

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Hello reader,

Not to sound like an old-timer, but I remember life in Hanoi before ride-hailing apps really took off.

When I first moved here in 2015, getting a motorbike taxi from one place to another usually involved a bit of negotiation over the price with a man sitting on a street corner with his bike. I normally came off second-best in those tête-à-têtes, owing to my limited Vietnamese language skills.

Nowadays though, myself and millions of other Hanoians use apps like Grab daily, mercifully saving me from losing my VND at the hands of motorbike taxi drivers.

While Grab has long been helping my wallet, it’s taken a bit longer for the company itself to turn a profit, but it managed to do so last year. The charts in today’s featured premium story outline the company’s stellar Q4 performance and other key metrics.

Today we look at:

• A financial health check on Grab
• A Singapore-based B2B payments firm’s new fundraise.
• Other newsy highlights such as Shein reportedly considering moving its IPO to London and a former Funding Societies exec launching an AI startup.

Premium summary

Charting Grab’s road to profit

Image credit: Timmy Loen

The fourth quarter of last year brought good tidings for Southeast Asian super app Grab, with a net profit of US$11 million.

The firm has its fingers in plenty of pies across ride-hailing, food delivery, and financial services, so getting your mind wrapped around a business of that scale can be tricky. Luckily, our charts have you covered.

• On the come-up: Grab has been steadily chipping away at its losses over the last year. In Q4 2022,the company recorded a loss of US$391 million, with the turnaround to profit a year later making for a 102.8% increase. The firm lost a hefty US$1.1 billion in the final quarter of 2021.
• Usage rates: For the last three quarters, Grab reported quarter-on-quarter increases in its total number of monthly active users. The figure hit 37.7 million in Q4 of last year, up from 36 million in Q3.
• Incentivization: The company did slightly increase its spending on incentives for consumers and partners in Q4 2023, seemingly in a bid to boost demand. Consumer incentives are typically discounts for the company’s services, while partner incentives refer to payments made to merchants and drivers on its platform. In total, Grab spent US$397 million on incentives in Q4, up from US$381 million the quarter prior.

Read more: Grab’s financial health in 11 charts

Funding flows for Fluid

Founders, meet your next potential investor on May 30

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