Didi Chuxing and SoftBank Group will invest up to $2bn to lead Grab’s current financing round, which expects to raise $2.5bn in total.
The investment upon completion will allow the ride-hailing company to strengthen its position in on-demand transportation and payments in Southeast Asia, where it operates across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.
According to Grab, this is the single largest financing in Southeast Asia until now. Through the investment Didi Chuxing and SoftBank can help Grab in reiterating its position a ride-hailing and a payments solution company.
Grab claims to have a market-share of 95% in third-party taxi-hailing and 71% in private vehicle hailing. The investment can also help in strengthening its market position for GrabPay, its proprietary mobile payments solution.
Its mobile ride-hailing platform is claimed to be used to book nearly 3 million daily rides, from a network of 1.1 million cars. The app is claimed to have been downloaded on to 50 million mobile devices. It operates in 65 cities across its markets in 7 countries.
Grab CEO and co-founder Anthony Tan said: “We are delighted to deepen our strategic partnership with DiDi and SoftBank. We’re encouraged that these two visionary companies share our optimism for the future of Southeast Asia and its on-demand transportation and payments markets, and recognize that Grab is ideally positioned to capitalize on the massive market opportunities.
“With their support, Grab will achieve an unassailable market lead in ridesharing, and build on this to make GrabPay the payment solution of choice for Southeast Asia. We look forward to continuing to work with our valued partners in the future.”
Didi’s CEO Cheng Wei stated that the Grab started out with transport and has grown from a player into a market leader in the region.
The partnering with Grab will allow to innovate localised solutions to global urban development challenges from the world’s fastest growing markets.