Tag: Grab

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Regional super-app giant Grab is set to acquire Everrise, a Malaysian supermarket chain, from private equity firm Navis Capital Partners. This acquisition follows a similar acquisition done by Grab to Jaya Grocer in 2022.

Everrise, founded in 1993 in Kuching, initially catered to the mass-market segment. As consumer preferences evolved, Everrise introduced a premium grocery shopping experience in 2012. In 2019, Navis recognised Everrise’s potential and invested in the company, to establish it as a leading premium grocery brand in East Malaysia.

Since the investment, Navis has closely collaborated with the company to accelerate the rollout of new stores and to refurbish existing ones, further enhancing the shopping experience for customers. 

Furthermore, Navis worked closely to bring in new professional talent and has supported management in improving its supplier engagement, broadening its product offerings–including the launch of a private label and securing new exclusive supply arrangements–and in digitalising its loyalty program, amongst others. 

Some of the rapid actions taken were informed from Navis’ experience in the more developed premium grocery market in Peninsular Malaysia, where Navis remains invested in the multi-brand operator, The Food Purveyor.

Jeffrey Sia, representing the founding family of Everrise, said, “We are proud to see Everrise growing from strength to strength. Over the last six years, Navis has helped transition the business to a fully professional team and created a robust foundation for independent future growth. We appreciate the partnership, trust and great working relations we have had with Navis over the years.”

He added, “Grab’s vision for the future comes at a perfect time and will be the beginning of a new milestone for the business to reach even greater heights. The team at Everrise is looking forward to this new partnership to deliver an even better shopping experience to all our customers.”

Meanwhile, Edwin Fua, partner at Navis, commented: “Everrise has a strong 30-year heritage, loyal customers and a dedicated team. By combining that with our prior experience in premium grocery, Everrise quickly became the undisputed leading brand for premium grocery shopping in East Malaysia. We are extremely proud of our partnership with the Sia family and appreciate their contributions in making this journey with us.”

He added, “The business is now well-positioned to take the next step and lead the digitalisation of the grocery shopping experience in East Malaysia together with Grab. It will be an exciting next few years and we look forward to its continued success.”

Philippines – Superapp Grab is surprising Filipino couples with a walking delivery bag this Valentine’s Day in its latest marketing campaign.

In a series of surprise videos on social media, Grab personified its delivery bag to humorously serve Filipino couples on their dates.

While injecting comedy into the videos, Grab highlights its offerings that can make Valentine’s celebrations better. It emphasises how users can order cakes from GrabFood and flowers from GrabMart alongside booking a ride with GrabCar.

Through the video, Grab showcases how celebrations of love can be made affordable and seamless for Filipino couples.

Grab also launched various promos for users of GrabCar, GrabMart, and GrabFood in time for Valentine’s Day.

Singapore – Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food delivery companies Grab and GoTo are reportedly in advanced discussions to merge, according to sources who spoke to Reuters.  

According to the report, the move comes as both companies seek to minimise years of losses in a fiercely competitive market.

This marks the latest attempt at a merger between the two rivals, having discussions falling through in the previous years.  Despite the history of failed negotiations, investors are reportedly eager to see a deal finalised in 2025. Reuters’ sources say merger talks were revived in December 2024.

The combined market capitalisation of the two companies is estimated to be nearly $25 billion.

However, contradictory to reports, GoTo has denied the discussions about a potential merger in a statement, saying that “there is no agreement between the Company and any party to enter into a merger transaction of the type.”

GoTo’s e-commerce unit, Tokopedia, was acquired by TikTok in 2023, with the latter gaining a 75% controlling stake. As part of the partnership, the social media platform announced a US$1.5b investment into GoTo.

Singapore – UNL Global, a mapping technology company in Singapore, is collaborating with GrabMaps to enhance its location services for businesses in Southeast Asia (SEA).

Combining their technologies, UNL and GrabMaps will leverage their location data and expertise to offer hyperlocal location services.

GrabMaps contributes its comprehensive location data, including extensive addresses, imagery, and points of interest across Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand.

The mapping data also leverages Grab’s network of merchants, consumers, drivers, and delivery partners, with insights gained daily from orders, rides, and real-time feedback.

Meanwhile, UNL provides pixel-based mapping and real-world game engine solutions, which enable digital representations of various locations.

Through the partnership, UNL and GrabMaps will offer better services for businesses in the region, aiming to eliminate problems in unreliable addressing and lack of last-mile data among others.

Additionally, the partnership will allow businesses and developers to have more optimised search and navigation services, predict more accurate estimated time of arrivals, and customise routes for specific vehicle parameters.

Xander van der Heijden, CEO and founder of UNL, said, “As one of the fastest-growing regions globally, Southeast Asia’s booming economy and increasingly connected population demand innovative solutions to meet the unique challenges of this dynamic region. We are excited to be joining forces with GrabMaps to bring the best-in-class location solutions to Southeast Asia’s markets. GrabMaps’ excellent map making capabilities and unmatched location data quality together with UNL’s advanced micro-location technology is a powerful combination, providing businesses with the tools they need to thrive in an environment where precision, efficiency, and customer-centricity are essential to staying ahead.”

“We are excited to support UNL Global in offering more accurate location data to help drive the growth of businesses and developers in Southeast Asia. GrabMaps’ extensive and highly granular data from across the region can help UNL’s customers improve operational efficiencies and unlock growth opportunities. UNL Global’s own micro-location technology, combined with our capabilities and insights, will enable UNL Global to offer more tailored solutions for their customers’ fast-changing needs,” Hazel Chen, regional head of group business development & partnerships at Grab, said.

Singapore – Superapp Grab has forged a partnership with high-tech enterprise BYD to provide its driver-partners in Southeast Asia (SEA) with more access to electric vehicles (EVs).

Through the partnership, Grab and BYD aim to make EVs accessible to driver-partners in SEA, offering competitive rates and battery warranties. Drivers can opt to rent the vehicle or seek financing support from Grab’s car ownership schemes.

With the availability of green vehicles, the companies strengthen their sustainability efforts to advance zero-emission modes of transportation.

The option for an ‘eco-friendly ride’ in the Grab app is available in some countries, including Singapore and Thailand. This allows Grab to prioritise allocating EVs to users without any additional charge.

Additionally, BYD and Grab will collaborate to ensure deep technology integration between the vehicles and the platform. This includes the installation of the Grab driver application in BYD vehicles, allowing efficiency for drivers to view their jobs, navigation, and messages on a large screen. The EV’s sensor and data will also be integrated into Grab’s platform to track driving patterns and behaviours.

The data from the EVs, including wiper signals and speed, provides Grab with the necessary information about weather and traffic, allowing it to predict passenger demand and improve the accuracy of each ride’s estimated time of arrival.

The regional partnership covers Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Liu Xueliang, general manager of BYD Asia Pacific Auto Sales Division, said, “We are excited to partner with Grab as the leading on-demand transport provider in Southeast Asia and push forward the transition to electric vehicles in the region. BYD, as the world’s leading new energy vehicle manufacturer, will best integrate our technology with Grab’s, and we look forward to working with them to deliver a unique and unparalleled experience for their drivers and users. We continue to be dedicated to our goal of building a zero-emission ecosystem and we are committed to supporting Grab’s fleet and driver-partners. Through this collaboration, we are working together with Grab to realize the vision of cooling the earth by one degree.”

Chuck Kim, managing director of group business development at Grab, said, “Sustainable growth in Southeast Asia is a priority for us and we are always looking to improve our offerings to both our driver-partners and Grab users. This collaboration enables us to drive the transition to EVs forward by lowering the financial barriers that are often associated with EVs, and in the long run deliver economic benefits to our driver-partners which may include fuel cost savings. We are confident that a reliable partner like BYD who are committed to delivering high quality vehicles and services allows us to showcase the benefits of EVs and make green transportation an accessible option to everyone.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – As part of its ongoing collaboration with regional super-app Grab, The Clan created a docuseries dedicated to telling deeply personal stories of the women who work as drivers and delivery partners. 

For the agency, the series features the ‘Motivation Meter?’ which serves as the measure of what drives the women to drive for Grab.

Based on Grab’s commitment to creating opportunities and helping individuals realise their ambitions, the agency highlighted three unique stories across Three Pillars: Caregiver, Safety Net, and Savings Goal. 

These included a single mother who gained the flexibility to work while raising an autistic child, a writer who was retrenched from a publishing firm yet managed to self-publish her first book, and an exercise instructor who nearly lost her home to debt.

Through the narrative device of a “Motivation Meter” the audience got to witness what made these women tick, and what saw them through their most difficult times. 

Sam Lai, head of art at The Clan explained, “We wanted a storytelling approach that diverged from the conventional talking-heads-in-cars type of interviews. So by adding this element of the Motivation Meter, it provided a unique angle for these inspiring women to share their deepest motivations. This offered a more intimate and authentic glimpse into their world and what inspires them to go the extra mile every day.”

The campaign debuted in mid-November, and has since garnered over 5.9million views on YouTube alone. It also aired on national television, drawing even more substantial viewing numbers. 

Singapore – Travel Alliance is set to launch a cross-border telco rewards programme for its customers with ride-hailing and delivery company Grab and travel brand Trip.com.

Travel Alliance, comprised of Singtel, AIS, Globe, HKT, Optus, Taiwan Mobile and Telkomsel, is set to roll out the rewards programme starting January next year.

Through the partnership with Grab and Trip.com, customers of Alliance members can save on accommodations, flights, rides, and food deliveries.

The launch reflects Travel Alliance’s aim of providing incentives to its customers when travelling, including for transport, dining, merchandise, and lifestyle services. Since Travel Alliance’s establishment in February 2024, Grab and Trip.com are the first to become partners that provide rewards for customers.

As part of the rewards programme, Travel Alliance customers can gain discounts from Trip.com hotel and flight bookings. Additionally, they can also upgrade to Trip.com’s top-tier status, enjoying rewards such as access to VIP lounges and upgrades for car models when travelling.

Meanwhile, Grab is set to launch a Grab Tourist Pack in 2025, providing exclusive deals for Alliance customers.

“As a customer-focused company, Trip.com is delighted to partner with the alliance of seven telcos to bring exceptional travel opportunities to their users across the Asia Pacific region. This collaboration reflects our commitment to making travel more accessible and rewarding by leveraging innovative partnerships. By combining the convenience of our platform with exclusive discounts for the telco customers, we aim to inspire more people to plan the perfect trip for a better world,” Han Feng, head of marketing at Trip.com, said.

“With our presence in over 700 cities across 8 countries in Southeast Asia, Grab believes we can be the one app travellers need for hailing rides, ordering food, dining out or getting emergency supplies delivered to their doorstep. We are pleased to partner the Travel Alliance to support the travel needs of their vast combined customer base,” Chuck Kim, managing director of group business development & strategic partnerships at Grab, commented.

Singapore – Grab’s advertising arm GrabAds have announced the expansion of its strategic partnership with GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, to help the latter’s clients unlock the power of Grab’s retail media network (RMN) capabilities for brand, performance and business growth. 

As part of the expanded partnership, GrabAds will enhance its first-party audience data with geo-based signals, which GroupM will further aggregate and integrate into their internal proprietary platforms. 

With these insights, GroupM clients across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam can look forward to more refined, data-driven media planning within an integrated omnichannel ecosystem.

The partnership will enable GroupM to access anonymised and indexed consumer insights based on real transactions which are then enhanced with geo-based signals, all of which are fully compliant with personal data privacy standards. These include data categories like cuisine preference, frequently travelled points of interest, and spend attributes. 

These geo-based first-party audience insights will enable more precise targeting capabilities for GroupM’s clients, that they can leverage to further optimise their media strategies and achieve marketing objectives. Brands will also benefit from full-funnel marketing capabilities with GrabAds’ RMN ecosystem, to maximise advertising spend for brand-building and sales objectives. 

It is worth noting that GroupM and GrabAds have been working together since 2021 to help advertisers harness retail media more effectively. With this expanded partnership, GroupM clients will continue to benefit from GrabAds’ existing and upcoming innovative omnichannel advertising offerings, including native advertising formats exclusive to Grab, data-driven campaigns, offline fleet placements, and programmatic buying capabilities. 

GroupM and GrabAds will also co-innovate on advertising solutions and media strategies. This collaboration will provide GroupM clients across sectors with early access to integration benefits and testing opportunities, enhancing their advertising effectiveness.

Anita Munro, chief investment officer at GroupM Asia-Pacific, said, “We embarked on this partnership with Grab given our confidence in their ability to work together with us to unlock market-leading advantage and value for clients in the evolving advertising landscape. As we continue to build and invest in a high-quality media ecosystem that is diverse, sustainable and audience-first, we are excited at the opportunity Grab presents with rich first-party audience insights and their strength as a platform that serves advertiser needs to connect the online to offline consumer journey. Multiple elements of the partnership will come together to accelerate growth for our clients including data, geo and audience-based expertise and more.”

Meanwhile, Ken Mandel, regional managing director and head of GrabAds and enterprise at Grab, commented, “We are excited to continue working alongside GroupM to help their clients unlock the true potential of retail media advertising, whether that’s crafting full-funnel campaigns or providing more precise means of measuring advertising returns. By combining GroupM’s scale, commitment to innovation and client-first mindset with our superior RMN capabilities, we are well-positioned to help GroupM clients drive accelerated growth in Southeast Asia.”

Singapore – Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that regional superapp announced that Grab has selected AWS as its preferred cloud provider. With AWS, Grab is pursuing a technology-led strategy to accelerate growth across its mobility, deliveries and financial services verticals, including its new digibanks, while continuing to improve its operational efficiencies and reduce IT infrastructure costs.

Grab relies on AWS to serve 41.9 million monthly transacting users and over 13  million driver and delivery partners registered on its platform. Every second, Grab does over a hundred transactions, receives over 500k GPS pings and services over 50,000 ETA requests. AWS powers Grab’s critical compute, storage, networking and database functions. 

By leveraging AWS’s resilient, secure, and elastic cloud, Grab accelerates innovation, rapidly launches new services and scales efficiently across its eight-country footprint- Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

As Grab looks to balance growth with cost discipline, it is also using AWS Cloud to power the majority of its operations in Southeast Asia across verticals such as mobility, deliveries and financial services and entities, including its digibanks in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. 

By adopting AWS’s suite of cloud-based solutions, Grab has been able to gain agility and reduce operational costs. Grab uses analytics service AWS Clean Rooms, which enables secure, privacy-preserving data collaboration between different entities and organizations. Grab also leverages AWS’s purpose-built databases and has migrated more than 400 backend application services from traditional virtual servers to AWS Graviton2 processors to drive high performance, as well as cost and energy efficiency. 

Moreover, on-demand transactions made by Grab customers were up 22% in the third quarter of 2024. To cater to this surge in demand for services, Grab uses Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) as its transactional database coupled with Amazon DynamoDB. This ensures high availability, scalability, and adaptability of its platform to drive exceptional customer experience fueled by more accurate searchable data. With AWS, Grab seamlessly adapts to evolving customer needs by easily adjusting resources dynamically based on user demand. For example, during peak times like holiday sales, Grab can easily accommodate increased traffic to make transactions across the superapp seamless. Conversely, during off-peak periods, resources can be scaled down to save costs. 

As it looks to accelerate growth with initiatives focused on affordability, high value offerings, and digital banking, AWS provides Grab with a stable and scalable infrastructure to support this rapid expansion. For instance, Grab continues to scale its revamped Advance Booking feature across the region. It also did a region-wide roll out of its improved Group Order feature and continues to drive adoption for it, making it easier for users to join the group order, track food delivery updates and split the bill. With AWS, Grab was also able to build and launch digital banks in Singapore and Indonesia, as well as GX Bank in Malaysia, which was launched in under 16 months, scaling rapidly to serve close to one million customers within the first year of launch. 

Lastly, Grab is committed to being at the forefront of exploring how the latest AI technologies can better serve and respond to the needs of its users and partners. Catwalk, Grab’s machine learning (ML) model platform, is built on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), and has been used to deploy over 1,000 AI models in production, such as route guidance and pricing. With Catwalk, Grab provides users’ real-time decision-making across its services and delivers personalized experiences like tailored restaurant recommendations, loyalty rewards, and bespoke financial services based on users’ preferences. In addition, Grab uses AWS’s custom-designed AWS Inferentia chips with specialized ML inference capabilities to cost efficiently power its AI-powered services, including map enhancements and fraud detection in its digital banks.

Grab also leverages AWS as the underlying compute infrastructure for its many AI initiatives. The superapp stores hundreds of petabytes of data and processes over 200 TB of data—the equivalent of 200,000 full-length movies—on AWS daily. This data forms the foundation of Grab’s advanced analytics, ML, and AI initiatives, with AWS powering innovations across the company’s services offerings.     

Building on AWS’s compute foundations, Grab continues to develop and implement several AI-powered use cases, particularly to improve driver productivity and support merchant growth. By integrating large language models (LLMs) with point-of-interest data and historical customer notes, Grab has refined its last-mile guidance system for delivery partners. This enhancement provides drivers with more precise drop-off instructions, enabling them to complete more trips every hour, leading to higher earnings, while expediting food delivery to consumers. Additionally, Grab has rolled out a new feature that uses AI to create appetizing descriptions of food dishes in five of its eight markets. This has boosted order completion rates, bringing particular benefits to smaller, unique restaurants on the platform and enhancing the overall dining experience for customers.

Jeff Johnson, managing director for ASEAN at AWS, said, “AWS is proud to support Grab in its mission to drive innovation and enhance customer experiences across Southeast Asia. By leveraging AWS’s unparalleled operational performance, scalability, and cutting-edge technologies, Grab is able to deliver personalized, seamless transactions to millions of users throughout the region.”

He added, “As the leading cloud provider, AWS is uniquely positioned to help Grab optimize its price performance, boost operational efficiency, and continually evolve its broad suite of data-powered services. We’re excited to continue collaborating with Grab as it navigates the dynamic landscape of ecommerce and superapp development, ensuring it stays at the forefront of innovation in the digital economy.”

Meanwhile, Suthen Thomas Paradatheth, chief technology officer at Grab, commented, “At Grab, our strategy for growth is anchored on constant innovation to outserve the needs of our users and partners. This requires rapid experimentation, while ensuring security and stability, along with the ability to fully harness the potential of the latest tech like GenAI. We’re pleased to extend our partnership with AWS as our preferred cloud partner to continue to support us on this journey.”

Singapore – Grab and Coca-Cola are advancing their strategic partnership in Southeast Asia to better engage today’s increasingly hybrid shoppers. The partnership will combine Coca-Cola extensive offline retail presence with Grab’s expansive online network to create unique experiences for consumers to better enjoy Coca-Cola beverages. 

This marks a significant milestone in the ongoing collaboration between the two companies, which is dedicated to driving customer value and unlocking growth opportunities for Coca-Cola as well as their merchants and distributors in the region. 

Coca-Cola will collaborate with Grab on various regional campaigns and initiatives that cover both online and offline channels, leveraging GrabAds’ comprehensive full-funnel retail media ecosystem. Coca-Cola will also tap into GrabAds’ first-party transaction data for precise audience profiling tailored to its target segments and to employ the platform’s innovative online-to-offline (O2O) ad formats for creative campaigns designed to boost engagement and sales. 

As part of the expanded partnership, Coca-Cola will continue to roll out the Foodmarks campaign on Grab across several Southeast Asian cities. The campaign invites users to discover hidden street food landmarks – or Foodmarks for short – in participating cities via the Grab app. 

Whether dining out by booking a Grab ride or ordering in with GrabFood, users can enjoy a perfect blend of delicious street food and refreshing Coca-Cola, bundled together in special combos by featured merchants. This campaign is executed through a series of in-app masthead and native ads, targeting users looking for new dining options.

Coca-Cola is also collaborating with Grab to help merchant-partners boost sales via omnichannel campaigns. This includes a video campaign leveraged by Coca-Cola sales teams to help merchants design and utilise Coca-Cola online bundles on Grab, which can be further amplified through GrabAds, including through product sampling. 

Initial campaigns have already demonstrated positive results: for instance, a product sampling campaign for Lemon Dou done in March this year within Metro Manila, Philippines, saw the delivery of 50,000 samples of Coke Zero via GrabFood merchants, yielding strong engagement. Coca-Cola also launched a car icon branding campaign in Vietnam early this year where Coca-Cola icon replaced Grab’s green rider icon, and appeared on real-time delivery maps. 

Lastly, Coca-Cola and Grab have also partnered on the Coke&Go campaign, which brings together convenience and seamless purchasing to tech-savvy consumers across Singapore. The initiative allows consumers to utilise the Grab app to make purchases from Coca-Cola physical smart coolers by scanning a QR code. Purchases can be seamlessly completed via cashless payment methods linked to consumers’ Grab accounts. Coke&Go is projected to deploy several hundred units across Singapore by early next year, with plans for regional expansion informed by consumer response. 

Sam Way, vice president of digital acceleration office at Coca-Cola ASEAN & South Pacific, said, “We are excited to take our partnership with Grab to the next level. In line with Coca-Cola commitment to growth, innovation and customer satisfaction, leveraging GrabAds’ retail media platform will help us boost our online presence to complement our robust offline retail network. With the digital population booming in Southeast Asia, this partnership will enable merchants to strengthen their online visibility, attract hybrid shoppers, and create deeper connections with the Coca-Cola brand across touchpoints.”

Meanwhile, Ken Mandel, regional managing director and head of GrabAds and enterprise, commented, “Coca-Cola has been a long-standing and valued partner of Grab, and we are thrilled to deepen our partnership with new and exciting co-created campaigns. To achieve full-funnel impact, it is crucial that merchant-partners are present where the consumers are, whether that’s online or offline. This also includes taking advantage of O2O platforms like ours to deliver innovative omnichannel experiences that not only drive tangible business results but build brand loyalty.”