Grab pockets $1.5b from SoftBank Vision Fund

Grab today added to its US$7.3 billion war chest of investor funding by raising US$1.46 billion from SoftBank’s US$100 billion Vision Fund.

The startup “intends to use the funds to advance its super app vision in Southeast Asia,” it said this morning in a statement, referencing its expansion into food delivery, a mobile wallet, and a handful of other services on top of the ride-hailing it started with.

Grab will use part of the money in Indonesia, where it claims to be “the leader in ride-hailing and O2O [offline] services” as it battles homegrown archrival Go-Jek.

A Grab-branded electric Hyundai Ioniq car / Photo credit: Grab

Grab today said it has 60 percent of the motorbike-hailing market and 70 percent of the four-wheel segment relative to Go-Jek and a bunch of much smaller rivals across Indonesia, though the company did not reveal its data source.

Grab president Ming Maa told Reuters that more funding may be on the way.

“We continue to see just a tremendous amount of investor interest around the world, and we may consider upsizing this financing in the future,” he said, noting that Grab is particularly keen on partnerships that could equip it with complementary tech or services.

The company is “absolutely not focused on an IPO or an IPO timeline right now,” Maa added. “For now, we are all heads down focused on growing the market, growing the business as opposed to a capital markets transaction.”

Today’s Vision Fund injection is part of Grab’s ongoing series H round, which now totals US$4.5 billion. Earlier investors in this round include Toyota, Hyundai, and Microsoft.