Alibaba Group is in discussions with southeast Asia’s biggest ride-hailing company Grab Holdings to invest $3 billion into the company. This investment would provide Alibaba with access to users’ data from eight countries in Southeast Asia. It could also help Alibaba’s fintech subsidiary Ant Group in setting up its digital wallet and financial services in the Southeast Asian market.
Grab is based in Singapore and offers food and courier delivery services, as well as scooter rentals and cashless payments. The company also operates in several countries in Asia, including Japan, Cambodia and Vietnam, where it had a 95% share of the market in 2017.
Grab merged with Uber’s Southeast Asian operations in March 2018, and Uber holds a 27.5% stake in it.
Check out more news in the ride-hailing and delivery industry:
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- Eleme reacts to WeChat article about hardships for delivery drivers
- Over 50 billion parcels delivered by China’s courier sector so far in 2020
