Singapore’s leading ride-hailing service Grab secured an additional $1 billion to fund its expansion in Southeast Asia into food delivery and payment systems, the company announced in a press release Thursday.
A number of financial institutions contributed to the funds including OppenheimerFunds, Ping An Capital, Mirae Asset – Naver Asia Growth Fund, Cinda Sino-Rock Investment Management Co., All-Stars Investment, Vulcan Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Macquarie Capital.
The investment brings the company’s total funding round to $2 billion, adding on to an earlier $1 billion investment from Toyota Motor Corp., which marked the largest investment ever from an OEM into a ride-hailing startup.
“We are honored to welcome these top-tier financial institutions into our roster of strategic investors and partners,” Ming Maa, president of Grab, said in the release. “We have seen overwhelming interest from global strategic investors and partners who are keen to partner with us to capture the region’s booming growth.”
Following Grab’s acquisition of Uber Technologies Inc.’s Southeast Asia operations earlier this year, Grab has pushed expansion in the region with products such as GrabFresh grocery delivery and the development of an open platform to encourage local payment transactions.
The company faces competition from Indonesian ride-hailing startup Go-Jek, which announced a $500 million investment in May to launch its services in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines. Go-Jek started as a bike ride-hailing service but, like Grab, has involved to include food delivery and a payment platform.
Go-Jek’s backers include Google, KKR & Co., Warburg Pincus, and Tencent Holdings Ltd.
Grab handles more than 7 million drivers, agents, and merchants across 225 cities in eight countries, and its app has been downloaded on more than 100 million mobile devices, according to Bloomberg.