Grab to let go of 360 employees

Ride-hailing giant Grab will be letting go of about 360 people, or under 5% of its staff, CEO and co-founder Anthony Tan announced earlier today in a letter to employees.

“Over the past few months, we reviewed all costs, cut back on discretionary spending, and implemented pay cuts for senior management,” Tan wrote. “In spite of all this, we recognize that we still have to become leaner as an organization in order to tackle the challenges of the post-pandemic economy.”

Photo credit: Afif Kusuma / Unsplash

Tan noted that Grab will need to prepare for “a long recovery period” as it expects the Covid-19 pandemic to result in a prolonged recession.

Aside from the job cuts, Grab will be sunsetting some non-core projects and consolidating functions.

It’s also doubling down on its delivery verticals to meet the increased demand. Earlier this month, the company said it has expanded its daily essentials and grocery delivery service GrabMart into eight countries across the region. It will also focus on adapting its core verticals such as ride-hailing, payments, and financial services to the new normal.

In his letter, Tan emphasized that today’s job cuts would be the last organization-wide layoff this year. “I am confident as we execute against our refreshed plans to meet our targets, we will not have to go through this painful exercise again in the foreseeable future,” he said.

Affected employees will get severance payment, enhanced separation pay, a waiver of annual cliffs for equity vesting, medical insurance coverage, maternity and paternity leave, encashment of unused accrued annual leave and GrabFlex credits, and emotional and career transition support.

Earlier this year, Grab’s archrival Gojek denied reports of layoffs at the company’s internal townhall and claimed that its transportation business has been profitable for “a few months.”