Transportation ordering platform Grab is set to acquire Indonesia-based online payment platform Kudo for more than $100m, giving exits to media firms Emtek, Singapore Press Holdings and Gree, Reuters reported yesterday.
Kudo has built an online platform that processes payments for its customers, allowing unbanked users to make or receive payments for goods such as tickets, food, consumer goods, mobile credit or insurance.
The deal will form part of the $700m that Singapore-headquartered Grab has earmarked for investment in Indonesia, its largest market, according to a source close to the matter. The plan, announced last week, partially involves increasing access to mobile payment and financing.
Grab has expanded from a ride hailing platform to incorporate services such as ride sharing and on-demand coach services, and is targeting Kudo in order to enhance its digital payment capabilities. The acquisition would be the first to be made by the company since it was founded in 2012.
Kudo raised a “seven-figure” amount in a May 2015 round co-led by Gree’s corporate venturing unit, Gree Ventures, and East Ventures, the venture capital firm that had provided the company’s seed funding the previous year.
500 Startups and IMJ Investment Partners also took part in the round and returned for an eight-figure round in September 2016 that was led by Emtek and backed by Singapore Press Holdings, East Ventures and Skystar Capital.