Private equity firm Stic Investments is set to provide $200m in funding for Singapore-based, corporate-backed ride hailing service Grab, Bloomberg reported today, citing people familiar with the matter.
The transaction will involve $100m coming from one of the firm’s funds while the rest will be supplied by undisclosed co-investors.
Formerly known as GrabTaxi, Grab’s core business is its app-based ride hailing service, but it has expanded into adjacent areas such as digital financial services, package and food delivery, hotel and cinema ticket booking.
However, the company’s revenues have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated lockdowns in Southeast Asia. It last raised money in February this year when it received $856m from IT services firm TIS Intec and TIS Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
The February deal took Grab’s total funding to about $8.3bn and followed an undisclosed amount from Experian Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of credit rating provider Experian, in July 2019 as part of an ongoing series H round.
The series H round had previously totalled $4.8bn and included telecommunications group SoftBank’s Vision Fund, carmakers Toyota, Hyundai and Kia Motors, online travel agent Booking.com, shopping centre owner Central Group, motorised vehicle manufacturer Yamaha, software provider Microsoft and Ping An Capital, a subsidiary of insurer Ping An.
Mirae Asset – Naver Asia Growth Fund, financial services firms Tokyo Century and Kasikornbank, Macquarie Capital, Invesco, Cinda Sino-Rock Investment Management, All-Stars Investment, Vulcan Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners are also series H investors.
SoftBank’s first investment in Grab was in 2014, and its backers also include travel services provider Qunar, on-demand ride provider Didi Chuxing, Tiger Global Management, GGV Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Vertex Ventures, China Investment Corporation and Coatue Management.
