Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank led an oversubscribed $750m series F round for Singapore-headquartered ride ordering platform operator Grab today that included undisclosed existing investors.
Founded as GrabTaxi, Grab operates a ride ordering platform covering private cars, taxis, motorcycles and carpooling services in 31 cities stretching across six Southeast Asian countries.
Customers book up to 1.5 million rides on the service each day, and the company said it has almost quadrupled both its users and drivers since it closed its series E round in August 2015. The round valued Grab at $3bn post-money, a source close to the company told TechCrunch.
Grab intends to put the funding toward business expansion and will also “significantly invest” in boosting its mobile payment capabilities to open up the service to users without access to credit cards or bank accounts in a region where an estimated 43% of the population is unbanked.
Anthony Tan, Grab’s co-founder and CEO, said: “Our vision is to drive Southeast Asia transportation forward and transform the region’s mobile internet ecosystem. This latest funding, the largest in the history of Southeast Asia consumer technology, strengthens our ability to pursue those long-term goals as we continue to build on our market leadership.
“We are particularly excited about the growth opportunity in Indonesia, where we see an almost $15bn market for ride hailing services alone, as well as the potential to extend GrabPay’s platform regionally”
Grab has now raised more than $1.4bn since it was founded in 2012, with SoftBank, Didi Chuxing, China Investment Corporation, Coatue Management and Tiger Global Management providing the $350m for its series E round last year.
SoftBank initially invested $250m in the company in late 2014 at a reported $625m valuation. Other past investors include online travel booking platform Qunar, GGV Capital, Vertex Venture Holdings and Hillhouse Capital Management.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group, said: “Grab is the clear winner in the Southeast Asia mobile space. Anthony and his team have made impressive progress in building out Southeast Asia’s largest mobile internet company.
“We are committed to supporting local champions like Grab that have a vision for a next-generation internet ecosystem, and look forward to participating in their long-term success.”
– The original version of this story stated Didi Chuxing was likely among the investors but company president Jean Liu has said that, while Didi Chuxing was in talks to invest, it did not take part in the final round (November 1, 2016).