Singapore’s Grab gets US$1 billion investment from Toyota as competition heats up for Southeast Asia
Toyota’s investment into Grab comes as carmakers continue to pour money into ride-hailing services around the world.
Grab, the Singapore-based on-demand services firm, on Wednesday announced that Toyota Motor would invest US$1 billion into the company as a lead investor in its current fundraising round.
Under the agreement, the Japanese carmaker will collaborate with Grab in areas such as connected cars and other mobility solutions. The investment is the largest ever of its kind by an carmaker into the ride-hailing industry, according to Grab.
The investment comes as carmakers continue to pour money into ride-hailing services around the world, to help facilitate market share expansion by selling cars to ride-hailing firms or cooperate on connected car solutions as the future of mobility appears to shift away from private car ownership.
The fresh funds will allow Grab to further expand services such as its food delivery service GrabFood and mobile payments GrabPay to more countries across the region.
From its beginnings as a taxi-booking app – its original name is GrabTaxi – the company is morphing into an online platform for connecting users and offline services, and is venturing into financial services and venture capital.