Grab acquires Uber’s businesses in Southeast Asia

Grab, a Singapore-based ride-hailing company whose major investors include Chinese ride-hailing service leader Didi Chuxing, has acquired Uber’s Southeast Asian businesses, according to a statement Grab released on its official website on Monday.

According to the statement, the operations Uber sold to Grab include its ridesharing and food delivery businesses in the region.

As part of the transaction, Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab’s board, the statement said.

The move marks the US company’s second retreat from the Asian market after selling its Chinese businesses in 2016 to Didi in return for a 17.5 percent stake.

Didi’s success in 2016 has “greatly inspired Grab”, said Chen Bingyao, the founder and CEO of Grab, adding that Asia is the starting point to prove that “local emerging companies can defeat Western technology giants,” domestic news site caijing.com reported.

“Didi fully supports Grab’s acquisition of Uber SEA and looks forward to continuing a long-term relationship with Grab as a strategic investor,” Didi said in a note it sent to the Global Times on Monday.

The Chinese company started to invest in Grab in 2015 and conducted comprehensive technological exchanges with Grab in the following years, according to the caijing report on Monday.

In July 2017, Grab raised $2.5 billion from investors led by Didi and Japan’s SoftBank, which was the “biggest ever” investment in a technology start-up in Southeast Asia.

“Didi Chuxing has been a strategic partner for Grab for several years now and we look forward to continuing to work with them during our next phase of growth to build Southeast Asia’s biggest online-to-offline mobile platform,” Grab said in an email it sent to the Global Times on Monday.

Didi has been rapidly expanding its overseas businesses recently amid rising global competition in the ridehailing market.

In February, Didi and SoftBank announced plans to launch a venture in Japan later this year to provide ridehailing services.

In January, Didi agreed to acquire Brazil’s 99, a ride-sharing company in Brazil, in a bid to expand its service into Latin America. The company is also looking to break into Mexico.

“Our globalization strategy is to grow up together with local companies, rather than defeating them,” the caijing report said, citing Cheng Wei, the CEO of Didi.