Grab feeds F&B appetite with Chope acquisition

Ride-hailing company Grab has acquired restaurant reservation platform Chope and will take over Chope’s operations in Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand, according to an internal email seen by The Business Times.

In the email, which was sent on Monday (July 22), Grab’s head of deliveries, Ngiam Xin Wei, informed employees that the company had closed a deal to acquire Chope, with the latter’s employees set to join Grab’s offices in Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand “in a couple of weeks.”

Photo credit: Chope

“Chope is a well-known and well-loved brand that operates in Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand,” said Ngiam in the email. “They have mature reservations and table management system, which we believe will bolster our omnicommerce strategy and help accelerate our efforts to capture the dining out opportunity.”

Ngiam said the company sees “a lot of potential” to extend Chope’s services to Grab’s merchant-partner base across the region. The acquisition will also strengthen Grab’s relevance as consumers’ “preferred everyday super app.”

While Chope has operations in Hong Kong and China as well, Grab will only be retaining its operations in Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Founded in 2011 by entrepreneur Arrif Ziaudeen, Chope enables diners to make online reservations for restaurants across Singapore, Jakarta, Bali, Bangkok, Phuket, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. According to its website, it has more than 13,000 restaurants in its network and has seated over 35 million diners to date.

Chope Group founder Arrif Ziaudeen / Photo credit: Chope

According to a report by Tech In Asia, Chope made about US$22.7 million in revenue in 2022, up 31% from the year before. These figures were extracted from Alternatives.pe, which tracks regulatory filings in Singapore.

In December 2022, Chope laid off 24% of its employees from its offices across the region. This included 38 workers from Singapore.

Cross-selling Chope’s services

Following the acquisition, the Grab and Chope teams will work together “to build a stronger, more holistic online-to-offline value proposition for merchants and users in Southeast Asia,” said Ngiam.

Grab intends to start cross-selling Chope services to its merchant-partners very soon. The Chope brand, app, and website will remain as they are for now to avoid disruption to Chope’s services for merchants and users.

The full transition and integration of the Chope team will take some time, said Ngiam. For now, Chope’s staff will remain as a unit under Grab’s omnicommerce business.