Conglomerate Lippo Group formed a strategic partnership with Singapore-based ride hailing platform Grab yesterday, revealing at the same time to Tech in Asia that it is an investor in the company.
Founded in 2011 as GrabTaxi, Grab operates an on-demand ride platform operating in six Southeast Asian countries.
Indonesia-based Lippo recently pumped $500m into MatahariMall, the e-commerce version of its Matahari department store chain, and Grab will assist it with home deliveries in cases where customers would prefer not to pick up the items from their local branch of Matahari.
John Riady, a director at Lippo, confirmed through a text message that Lippo was an early investor in Grab, as was venture capital firm Venturra Capital.
Grab had raised $690m in funding as of August 2015. Its investors also include China-based ride hailing company Didi Kuaidi, telecoms and internet group SoftBank, travel agency Qunar, China Investment Corporation, Coatue Management, Tiger Global Management, GGV Capital, Vertex Venture Holdings and Hillhouse Capital Management.