Singapore ride-hailing startup Grab raises $200 million from travel giant Booking Holdings

Singapore-based ride-hailing Grab has raised $200 million funding from Booking Holdings, the parent company of Booking.com, Priceline.com, Agoda.com, Kayak.com, Cheapflights, Rentalcars.com, Momondo, and OpenTable. The two companies announced a strategic partnership today. The investment is part of a $3-billion ongoing funding round that Grab looks to raise by year-end. It has raised over $2-billion so far, from Toyota, Microsoft, OppenheimerFunds, Lightspeed Ventures Partners and Macquarie Capital.

With the partnership, Booking Holdings’ brands will have the ability to offer on-demand transport services through their apps, powered by Grab, and Grab customers will be able to book accommodations across the globe powered by Booking.com and agoda. In addition, Booking Holdings has invested US$200 million in Grab, recognizing Grab as the leading online-to-offline mobile (O2O) mobile platform in Southeast Asia. Grab has raised over US$2 billion for its current round of financing and is on track to raise over US$3 billion by the end of this year.

Through this collaboration, the world’s largest online travel platform and Southeast Asia’s leading O2O mobile platform aim to broaden and simplify travel solutions for travelers in Southeast Asia and around the globe.

This one of the several funding rounds Grab raised in the past few years. In September 2016, Grab raised US$750 million in series F funding from Softbank, Didi, and Honda. In August 2017, Grab raised US$2.5 billion in series G funding from Softbank, Didi, and Toyota. As of March 2018, Grab was valued at US$ 6 billion. In 2014, Anthony Tan stated that the company may consider an Initial Public Offering (IPO) when the number of bookings through the app reaches 2 million a day.

Founded in 2012 by Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling, the Singapore-based Grab is a ride-hailing platform that offers booking service for taxis, private cars, and motorbikes through one mobile. Grab offers a wide range of services through one mobile app and has been driving Southeast Asia forward since 2012. Today, the com[any is making transport freedom a reality in eight countries across the region. From simple taxi services to now private car services (GrabCar), motorcycle taxis (GrabBike), last mile delivery (GrabExpress), ride sharing (GrabShare), and food delivery (GrabFood). Grab currently offers services in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia

Todd Henrich, SVP and Head of Corporate Development for Booking Holdings, said, “Grab has scaled impressively across Southeast Asia over the last few years, establishing itself as a recognized leader in an increasingly competitive space, and we’re excited to partner with them to build even better travel experiences through technology.”

The partnership between Booking Holdings and Grab allows Grab users to book travel-related services through the app for the first time, and pay seamlessly using the region’s leading digital wallet, GrabPay. The partnership also highlights Grab’s commitment to becoming Southeast Asia’s leading everyday super app, offering ride-hailing, food delivery, parcel delivery and digital payments to millions in the region. Grab has a presence in 235 cities in 8 countries and enables 8 million micro-entrepreneurs through its platform.

Ming Maa, President of Grab said, “We are delighted to work with Booking Holdings to give our users even more everyday services to choose from when they open the Grab app. The online travel market in Southeast Asia is set to nearly triple by 20251 and we see numerous synergies between travel and transportation that will allow us to capitalize on this huge opportunity. As a global travel leader, Booking’s investment into Grab is a vote of confidence in our continued ability to execute and expand into different O2O verticals, and roll them out across the 235 cities in which we operate.”

Founded in 1997, Booking Holdings is one of the world’s leaders in online travel and related services. The company provides services t customers and partners in over 220 countries and territories through six primary brands -Booking.com, KAYAK, priceline, agoda.com, Rentalcars.com and OpenTable.