Singapore-based ride hailing platform Grab has entered talks with telecommunications group SoftBank and China-based on-demand ride service Didi Chuxing to raise up to $2bn, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The round would value Grab at more than $5bn, people familiar with the matter told the WSJ. That prospective figure would make Grab the most highly valued venture capital-backed company in Southeast Asia.
Founded in 2012 and originally known as GrabTaxi, Grab runs an on-demand ride service that spans 66 cities across seven Southeast Asian countries.
News of the talks follows reports last month that Grab was lining up a $1.5bn round that could include China-based e-commerce firm Alibaba and its Ant Financial affiliate as well as SoftBank and Didi Chuxing, both of which are existing Grab investors.
The funding would be used not only to battle Uber in Southeast Asia, to which the US-based company has moved resources from China since Didi Chuxing acquired its Uber China subsidiary in August 2016, but to expand financial services and e-commerce offerings.
Grab is undertaking a $700m plan called Grab 4 Indonesia, which involves it building a more diversified technology offering in Indonesia, its biggest market and the location of Kudo, the e-commerce platform it acquired in April 2017.
SoftBank first invested in Grab in 2014, supplying $250m in series D funding, before joining Didi Chuxing, China Investment Corporation, Coatue Management and Tiger Global Management for a $350m series E round the following year.
Grab subsequently secured $750m in September 2016 at a $3bn valuation, in a round led by SoftBank that included undisclosed existing backers. It has raised about $1.4bn in venture funding altogether.
The company’s other investors include automotive manufacturer Honda, online travel services provider Qunar, financial services firm Tokyo Century, GGV Capital, Vertex Venture Holdings and Hillhouse Capital Management.
– Photo courtesy of Grab