Grab confirms $2b funding as race to become Southeast Asia’s top everyday app intensifies

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Grab has announced that it raised a total of US$2 billion from its latest funding round, confirming months of speculation that it had a mega-fundraising effort in the works.

Japanese automaker Toyota led the round, its US$1 billion contribution as part of a wider strategic investment having been announced back in June.

Other investors joining the latest round included Ping An Capital, OppenheimerFunds, Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, Cinda Sino-Rock Investment Management, All-Stars Investment, Vulcan Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Macquarie Capital.

The capital boost will come in handy as Grab attempts to reposition itself as an “everyday app” providing a wide range of online-to-offline (O2O) services beyond its core ride-hailing offering.

The company said the fresh funds will be used to expand its on-demand services throughout Southeast Asia. However, it underlined the Indonesian market as its strategic priority going forward.

In a statement, Grab said that over half of the merchants and other micro-entrepreneurs using its platform to connect with consumers are based in Indonesia. It claimed that Ovo – the Indonesian incarnation of its GrabPay mobile wallet – is the island nation’s “most widely accepted mobile payments ecosystem,” having clocked more than 60 million downloads.

The firm further claimed that its on-demand food-delivery feature, GrabFood, had seen its gross merchandise value (GMV) quadruple in the first half of this year. Its motorbike courier service GrabExpress saw GMV double over the same period, it added.