Grab to expand GrabFood in Southeast Asia following acquisition of Uber
It will integrate Uber’s food delivery business in the region into Grab’s existing fintech platform.
Grab is slated to rapidly expand its existing GrabFood businesses in Indonesia and Thailand to two more countries – Singapore and Malaysia – following the integration of the Uber Eats business. GrabFood will be available across all major Southeast Asian countries in the first half of 2018.
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. Uber Eats will run until the end of May, after which Uber delivery and restaurant partners will move to the GrabFood platform.
Grab co-founder Tan Hooi Ling said, “We will rapidly and efficiently expand GrabFood into all major SEA countries in the next quarter. We’re going to create more value for our growing ecosystem of consumers, drivers, agents – and now merchants and delivery partners. GrabFood will also be another great use case to drive the continued adoption of GrabPay mobile wallet and support our growing financial services platform.”
“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. We’re excited to take this step with Anthony and his entire team at Grab, and look forward to Grab’s future in Southeast Asia,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber.
With the combined business, Grab will drive towards becoming the top online-to-offline (O2O) mobile platform in Southeast Asia and a major player in food delivery.
