Travel and accommodation booking platform Booking Holdings invested $200m in Singapore-based ride hailing and mobile services provider Grab yesterday in connection with a strategic partnership.
Grab operates an on-demand ride service in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia that has added services such as food, package and shopping delivery, all of which can be paid for through its own mobile payment system.
Booking Holdings, which was formerly known as Priceline, made the investment as part of a deal that will enable it to offer Grab’s services through its apps. Grab customers will meanwhile be able to book accommodation linked to Booking’s Booking.com and Agoda services.
Grab president Ming Maa said: “We are delighted to work with Booking Holdings to give our users even more everyday services to choose from when they open the Grab app.
“The online travel market in Southeast Asia is set to nearly triple by 2025 and we see numerous synergies between travel and transportation that will allow us to capitalise on this huge opportunity.
“As a global travel leader, Booking’s investment into Grab is a vote of confidence in our continued ability to execute and expand into different [online-to-offline] verticals, and roll them out across the 235 cities in which we operate.”
The funds will be added to an ongoing round Grab is raising which reached $2bn in August this year, and the company said yesterday it now plans to increase that round to $3bn, valuing it at $12bn post-money. Telecommunications group SoftBank could reportedly invest $500m in the round.
Carmaker Toyota provided the first $1bn for the round in June before Ping An Capital, a subsidiary of insurance firm Ping An, and Mirae Asset – Naver Asia Growth Fund, a joint venture for internet company Naver and investment bank Mirae Asset Daewoo, added $1bn more.
Grab has now raised $6.1bn since it was founded in 2012 as GrabTaxi. Travel services provider Qunar joined Vertex Venture Holdings and GGV Capital for a $15m series B round in 2014 that represented its first corporate investment.
Tiger Global Management, Hillhouse Capital and all Grab’s existing investors provided $65m in series C funding later the same year, and SoftBank added $250m shortly afterwards.
The company received $350m in a 2015 series E round featuring SoftBank, on-demand ride platform Didi Chuxing, Tiger Global, Coatue Management and China Investment Corporation, before SoftBank led a $750m series F round in 2016.
Financial services firm Tokyo Century and carmaker Honda invested undisclosed amounts in Grab in late 2016, and Toyota, SoftBank, Didi Chuxing and media company Emtek all took part in a $2.5bn round for the company in August 2017.
US-headquartered ride hailing service Uber is also among Grab’s shareholders, having acquired a stake through a March 2018 deal that involved it merging its Southeast Asian assets with Grab’s own service.
