Grab acquires Uber’s operation in Southeast Asia

By Dang Hoa - Mar 26, 2018 | 04:35 PM GMT+7

TheLEADEROn March 26, Grab officially announced that all of Uber’s motorcycle riders and taxi drivers in Vietnam would work for the former from this April.

Grab acquires Uber’s operation in Southeast Asia
After this deal, Grab would be exclusive in the Southeast Asia market. Photo: CNBC

According to Grab’s announcement to acquire Uber’s Southeast Asia operations, Grab will integrate Uber’s ridesharing and food delivery business in the region into Grab’s existing multi-modal transportation and fintech platform.

With the combined business, Grab will drive towards becoming the largest online-to-offline (O2O) mobile platform in Southeast Asia and a major player in food delivery.

As part of the acquisition, Uber will take a 27.5 per cent stake in Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab’s management board.

“We are humbled that a company born in Southeast Asia has built one of the largest platforms that millions of consumers use daily and provides income opportunities to over five million people. The acquisition marks the beginning of a new era. The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region,” said Anthony Tan, Group CEO and Co-founder, Grab.

“This deal is a testament to Uber’s exceptional growth across Southeast Asia over the last five years. It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology to create the best customer experience on the planet,” said CEO of Uber Dara Khosrowshahi.

To minimise disruption, Grab and Uber are working together to promptly migrate Uber drivers and riders, Uber Eats customers, merchant partners and delivery partners to the Grab platform. The Uber app will continue to operate for two weeks to ensure stability for Uber drivers.

This deal has been seen as Uber’s continual withdrawal from international markets. In 2016, under the management of Travis Kalanick, Didi Chuxing acquired Uber’s operation in China with the price of 17.5 per cent stake.

Uber’s withdrawal from Southeast Asia would help the corporation increase its profit in the context that it has invested about $10.7 billion since being established nine years ago.

Grab is one of the most frequently used O2O mobile platforms in 195 cities in Southeast Asia. Over 5 million people use the combined platform daily. Today, the Grab app has been downloaded onto over 90 million mobile devices, giving passengers access to over 5 million drivers and agents, the region’s largest land transportation fleet, and agent network.