Less than two weeks after announcing the launch of its new financial services, ride-hailing company Grab announced on Monday it has acquired Uber’s Southeast Asia operations. This deal is the largest-ever of its kind in Southeast Asia. Grab reported it will integrate Uber’s ridesharing and food delivery business in the region into Grab’s existing multi-modal transportation and fintech platform.
Grab also stated it will extend its leadership as the “most cost-efficient” Southeast Asian platform, as it takes over Uber’s operations and assets in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. As part of the acquisition, Uber will notably take a 27.5% stake in Grab and Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, will join Grab’s board. While sharing more details about the partnership, Anthony Tan, CEO and Co-Founder of Grab, explained:
“We are humbled that a company born in SEA has built one of the largest platforms that millions of consumers use daily and provides income opportunities to over 5 million people. Today’s acquisition marks the beginning of a new era. The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region. Together with Uber, we are now in an even better position to fulfil our promise to outserve our customers. Their trust in us as a transport brand allows us to look towards the next step as a company: improving people’s lives through food, payments and financial services.”
Tan Hooi Ling, Co-founder, Grab, then commented:
“We will rapidly and efficiently expand GrabFood into all major SEA countries in the next quarter. We’re going to create more value for our growing ecosystem of consumers, drivers, agents – and now merchants and delivery partners. GrabFood will also be another great use case to drive the continued adoption of GrabPay mobile wallet and support our growing financial services platform.”
Khosrowshahi also reported:
“This deal is a testament to Uber’s exceptional growth across Southeast Asia over the last five years. It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology to create the best customer experience on the planet. We’re excited to take this step with Anthony and his entire team at Grab, and look forward to Grab’s future in Southeast Asia.”
Grab went on to add that it and Uber are working together to promptly migrate Uber drivers and riders, Uber Eats customers, merchant partners and delivery partners to the Grab platform. The Uber app will continue to operate for two weeks to ensure stability for Uber drivers, who can find out how to sign-up to drive with Grab online. Uber Eats will run until the end of May, after which Uber delivery and restaurant partners will move to the GrabFood platform.