Singapore-headquartered ride hailing service Grab has begun accepting applications for the third cohort of its post-seed scale-up scheme, Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV), KrAsia reported on Tuesday.
Southeast Asia-focused startups developing services for food and drinks sector and business-to-business supply chain management can submit their candidacies to the latest edition of the initiative dubbed GVV Batch 3 by the end of this month.
Grab set up GVV in mid-2018 alongside its corporate venturing unit, Grab Ventures. GVV Batch 1 finalised in January 2019 and contained five startups which were joined by Batch 2’s 10 finalists six months later.
The news came in the wake of Grab unveiling a six-month accelerator called Grab Ventures Ignite (GVI) targeting Vietnam-based early-stage startups. It forms part of the company’s Grab for Good drive, which aims to enable social and economic development through technology.
GVI has also entered into a strategic alliance with the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment’s National Innovation Centre to build up the country’s innovation ecosystem and bolster its digital economy.
Chris Yeo, head of Grab Ventures, said in a statement: “Vietnam’s startup ecosystem is very well-poised for digital disruption by startups, with investments increasing sharply over the last year, we believe that we are in a strong position to propel it to the next chapters through Grab Ventures Ignite.”
