Mastercard (NYSE: MA) and Grab, which is Southeast Asia’s leading “Super App” provider, announced on October 14, 2021, a regional partnership to support digital and financial inclusion in the region.
This partnership will aim to offer millions of informal workers and small businesses on the Grab platform access to digital upskilling opportunities “to create more pathways and income opportunities for them.”
According to the recently published platform economy report by Bain and the Tech for Good Institute, Southeast Asia must focus on strengthening the population’s digital literacy and trust to “drive deeper digital economy participation.”
The Mastercard-Grab partnership aims to “fill this gap by granting underserved communities access to core digital, financial and business skills to help them better manage their finances and businesses and participate fully in the digital economy.”
The scope of the two-year partnership includes:
- Bespoke training programs for informal workers and small businesses: The programmes will be progressively rolled out across the region from Q42021, starting with a few launch markets. Grab’s partners can access these programs for free through the Grab Driver and Merchant apps.
- Cybersecurity Certification program: As part of the Mastercard Academy 2.0 initiative, Mastercard is extending its cybersecurity certification program to Grab’s driver-partners and their family members, and business mentorship access program to driver-partners and merchant-partners.
- Advancing the digital economy through research and dialogues: Mastercard has joined Grab’s recently established Tech for Good Institute as an advisory board member. The Institute seeks to work with the public and private sectors to harness technology for good to support the region’s growth and development.
Rama Sridhar, EVP, Digital & Emerging Partnerships and New Payment Flows, Asia Pacific, Mastercard, stated:
“Southeast Asia is at an economic turning point. For growth across much of the region to be truly inclusive, it’s important to proactively ensure that the private sector is helping to upskill people from all walks of life. Grab has extensive reach in Southeast Asia, and Mastercard is exceptionally proud to be working with a partner that is equally deeply committed to using that reach to provide economic opportunity.”
Cheryl Goh, Group Head of Marketing and Sustainability, Grab, remarked:
“We have benefitted much from the Southeast Asia technology ecosystem, and want to do our part to support the development of local talents and businesses. Through partnerships with leading companies like Mastercard, we can bring high-quality training programmes to millions of people and businesses on our platform. We truly believe that this partnership has the potential to unlock economic growth in communities across the region.”
The MoU underlines both firms’ efforts to support digital and financial inclusion via human capital development and small business training.
Last year, Grab trained more than 1.7 million driver-partners via its platform in areas like digital and financial literacy. In September 2021, with an initial philanthropic investment of $25 million from the Mastercard Impact Fund, Mastercard introduced Strive, a project focused on strengthening the financial resilience of small businesses and “supporting their recovery and growth.”