Singapore-based on-demand ride service Grab has increased the potential size of a series H round already backed by several corporate investors to $5bn, a source with knowledge of the plan has told TechCrunch.
Founded in 2012 as GrabTaxi, Grab runs a ride hailing app that has been downloaded more than 130 million times across Southeast Asia. It has formed its own mobile payment tool and is using it as the basis for an expanded service that takes in package and food delivery.
The company has been raising money for the series H round since June 2018 when it received $1bn from automotive manufacturer Toyota, adding $1bn in August from investors including Ping An Capital, a corporate venturing vehicle for insurer Ping An.
The Mirae Asset – Naver Asia Growth Fund set up by internet group Naver and Mirae Asset Daewoo also backed the second close, as did All-Stars Investment, Vulcan Capital, OppenheimerFunds, Cinda Sino-Rock Investment Management, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Macquarie Capital.
Travel agency Booking Holdings invested $200m in Grab in October before carmakers Hyundai and Kia Motors provided $250m weeks later as Grab revealed the round included software provider Microsoft, financial services firm Citi’s Citi Ventures unit and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners.
The company raised a further $50m from financial services firm Kasikornbank the same week and secured a $150m commitment from small-vehicle maker Yamaha Motor earlier this month to take the round to $2.85bn.
Grab had said it had planned to close the round at $3bn before the end of this year but telecommunications group and existing backer SoftBank’s Vision Fund is said to be interested in investing up to $1.5bn in the round, encouraging the company to increase its size. It had previously raised a total of $3.7bn in funding.
The latest round comes after a $2.5bn series G round closed in January 2018 that included a $2bn investment by SoftBank and Chinese ride hailing platform Didi Chuxing as well as additional capital from Toyota’s Next Technology Fund and Hyundai.
SoftBank led Grab’s $750m series F round in 2016, the year after the company secured $350m in series E funding from SoftBank, Didi Chuxing (then known as Didi Kuaidi), China Investment Corporation, Tiger Global Management and Coatue Management.
Grab had raised $250m in series D funding from SoftBank in 2014. Travel agency Qunar, GGV Capital and Vertex Venture Holdings had supplied $15m in a series B round earlier the same year before joining Tiger Global and Hillhouse Capital Management for a $65m series C.
