Backdoor listing on Nasdaq marks high point for nine-year-old Singapore The company that started as a ride-hailing app and now operates in 465 cities across eight countries, offering food delivery, payments, insurance and investment products.
Grab’s rivals, including regional internet firm Si and Indonesia’s Goto Group, are also growing rapidly, with the region’s internet economy projecting to double to $360 billion in gross business volume by 2025.
Grab was founded by Anthony Tanu, its chief executive, and tan he ling, who developed the firm from an idea for a Harvard Business School venture competition in 2011. CEO Tan, 39, expanded into a regional operation with a range of services, after launching as a taxi app in Malaysia in 2012. Later it was shifted. Headquarters for Singapore.
Tan told Reuters: “What we’ve shown the world is that domestic tech companies can develop the best technology that can compete globally, even when international players are in the city … we compete. Can do and win.” He added that Grab’s listing will help showcase the opportunities available to investors in Southeast Asia, a region of about 650 million people.
Grab’s listing brings a payday bonus to early backers such as SoftBank Group Corp and Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, which invested in early 2014. They were later joined by others such as Toyota Motor Company, Microsoft Corp and the Japanese. Bank MUFG. Uber became a Grab shareholder in 2018 after selling its Southeast Asian business after a five-year battle.
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Analysts see scope for several players in Southeast Asia’s fragmented food delivery and financial services markets, but the road to profitability could be a long one.
In September, Grab cut its full-year adjusted net sales forecast, citing renewed uncertainty over the pandemic over movement. Third-quarter revenue declined 9% and its adjusted loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased 66% to $212 million. Grab said GMV jumped 32% in the quarter to a record $4 billion.
It aims to become profitable based on EBITDA in 2023.
Grab said it has completed its business combination with SPAC, Altimeter Growth Corp. Grab will begin trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “Grab”.
Grab raised $4.5 billion with the SPAC transaction, including $750 million from Silicon Valley tech investor Altimeter Capital Management in a deal in April.