Grab, the Southeastern Asian giant for cab hailing has confirmed to raise $750 million in fresh capital.

The company raised series F round, and it was led by existing investor SoftBank from new and undisclosed existing backers. One such investment is said to be directed from China’s Didi Kuaidi, which reportedly made a commitment to this round but neither side is confirming now.

Image by Jon Russell / CC BY 2.0

This round confirmed post-valuation of $3 billion to the company which was previously valued at $2.3 billion. It raised around $350 million last August and this funding round was comprehended to raise $600 million in August. However, the company’s headquarter in Singapore claims to possess $1 billion on sheet courtesy of this fresh capital.

Grab said it has 400,000 drivers on its platforms and it has seen over 21 million app downloads to date. In an announcement, the company added that it sees “up to 1.5 million daily bookings,” which a Grab spokesperson confirmed means ride requests not completed rides. Taking on Uber does definitely require loads of capital, Grab, however, has sketched major areas where it would like to focus.

Indonesia is the fifth largest economy in Southeast Asia that falls on the top of the list with the CEO Anthony Tan claiming that Indonesia’s ride-hailing industry is worth $15 billion annually- that includes multi-mode means of transportation which Grab offers there and services such as food delivery, logistics and more. Though, GoJek is a tough competitor in Indonesian market that provides on-demand motorbike taxi service.

Grab has R&D centres in Singapore, Beijing and Seattle that has set priorities on refining algorithms to help drivers become more efficient using mapping technology, working on-demand prediction and user targeting.

“Grab has grown tremendously over the past year. This round of funding shows the confidence and optimism investors have in Grab’s market leadership and long-term potential in Southeast Asia,” Tan, Grab’s CEO, said in a statement.

This new funding round is a major round for Grab and the largest for a tech startup in Southeast Asia to date.

Source: TechCrunch

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One of the leading ride-hailing brands, Uber is looking to raise $2.1 billion. It is the most valuable private technology company on paper, at a current $50 billion valuation. Once completed, the investment will value the company at $62.5 billion.

Currently, Uber is informing its potential investors that it has a gross revenue rate of over $10 billion globally. The major portion of this money is given to its drivers. Tiger Global Management, led by its business partner Lee Fixel, participated in Uber’s latest investment round. The participation of Tiger Global Management is interesting as it has previously invested in two of the Uber’s biggest competitors i.e. Ola and GrabTaxi. This might be the first time a major institutional investor has participated in the rounds of both Uber and its competitors.

This news indicates that Uber is accelerating its race to expand globally and branch into services beyond picking up and dropping off riders. The company has tested food and package delivery in some cities, and is working on new technology, such as self-driving cars. Uber has already earmarked at least $1 billion towards its growth efforts in the Chinese market. Recently, it has made Ride Request Button available in 3^rdparty mobile travel apps to bring new customers onboard.

Observing the rapid expansion of Uber in different markets, its cab-rental rivals – Ola in India, Didi Kuaidi in China, GrabTaxi in Southeast Asia and Lyft in the USA had announced a strategic global rideshare partnership. Ola operates in 102 Indian cities. Didi takes seven million rides per day across 360 Chinese cities. Lyft in the US runs in over 190 cities and claims to have 7 million rides per month and GrabTaxi leads Southeast Asia with up to 1.5 million daily bookings across six countries. The four companies together can turn into a major challenger for Uber.

For international travellers, this association means seamless ridesharing across multiple countries. For example, an Indian Ola user can use the same app in Singapore to hail a GrabTaxi and vice versa. The companies will connect and use each other’s technology, local market knowledge, and business resources for enhancing growth.

How will Uber expand further in different markets and confront the four leading ride-hailing brands is yet to be seen.

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Didi Kuaidi, a company made by merging China’s two largest taxi-hailing firms – Didi Dache & Kuaidi Dache, has invested in Ola– the biggest cab rental brand of India. Through this association the Chinese brand challenges its US rival Uber Technologies.

The size of the investment has not been disclosed but Didi Kuaidi states that the funds will help Ola expand, especially in smaller towns. Some sources estimate the investment to be around $30 million but none of the companies have confirmed the same. According to Ola they have 80% market share making them the biggest and the most influential player in the sector.

Didi Kuaidi spokesperson stated:

“Didi Kuaidi believes both India and China are rapidly developing countries with enormous market potential… Didi Kuaidi looks to engage local industry champions like Ola to share technology and best practices in product development and operational expertise – all honed from deep market data-driven operations.”

Ola spokesperson quoted:

“We welcome Didi Kuaidi as an investor in Ola. We look forward to exchange learnings from two of the world’s largest markets and the tremendous synergies this partnership can bring, towards our commitment of building mobility for a billions of Indians.”

Ola attempts to cautiously use this fund for various programmes. It has already included services like expanded mobile wallet and Wi-Fi enabled cars. Surprisingly, the two giants – Didi Kuaidi and Ola – have many common investors like SoftBank and Tiger Global Management.

This is not the first such investment by the Chinese brand. It had invested $100 million in Lyft, a San-Francisco based ridesharing company. It had also financed GrabTaxi, a South-East Asian cab-hire brand, with a sum of $350 million. Talking about investments, Ola had raised $400 million from DST Global investors earlier this year.

Didi Kuaidi is funding many cab-hire brands internationally that concentrate on local strategies. While they remain focused at their home market China for their business, they are putting money on other companies doing the same in other countries so that they can match Uber internationally.

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