Shopping centre and department store owner Central Group closed a $200m investment in Singapore-based ride hailing platform developer Grab today, confirming a Bloomberg report yesterday.
The funding was provided specifically for Grab’s Thai subsidiary and will not make up part of the ongoing series H round the company is in the process of raising.
Grab operates its on-demand ride and food and package delivery service across eight Southeast Asian countries that also include Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Myanmar.
Central Group supplied the cash in the form of a strategic partnership deal that will help Grab expand in Thailand, and the businesses will collaborate on transport as well as food and grocery deliveries, and ultimately on logistics.
The transaction comes three weeks after leasing and financing services provider Tokyo Century committed an undisclosed amount to the company’s car rental Grab Rentals subsidiary as part of a larger investment.
Grab is currently raising money through a series H round that had reportedly passed $3bn as of the equity financing Tokyo Century invested through the recent deal, and which could potentially exceed $5bn by its final close.
Toyota invested $1bn in the round, which includes fellow carmakers Kia Motors and Hyundai, travel booking platform Booking Holdings, software provider Microsoft, vehicle manufacturer Yamaha Motor, Ping An Capital and Citi Ventures, subsidiaries of insurer Ping An and banking group Citi.
Mirae Asset – Naver Asia Growth Fund, which is backed by internet group Naver, is also taking part, as are financial services firm Kasikornbank, Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, All-Stars Investment, Vulcan Capital, OppenheimerFunds, Cinda Sino-Rock Investment Management and Macquarie Capital.
The series H follows $3.7bn of earlier funding since Grab was founded in 2012 as GrabTaxi, from investors such as Hyundai, Toyota’s Next Technology Fund, telecommunications group SoftBank, ride hailing service Didi Chuxing and travel services provider Qunar.
Grab’s shareholders also include China Investment Corporation, Tiger Global Management, Coatue Management, GGV Capital, Vertex Venture Holdings and Hillhouse Capital.
The latest deal comes in the wake of partnerships forged this month with insurer ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance, to sell digital insurance products, and shopping centre operator CapitaLand which will involve them integrating their customer loyalty schemes.
This article was amended from an earlier version published before the investment was confirmed.
