Deals
Grab’s Record Funding Shifts Uber Battleground to Southeast Asia
- SoftBank-led round said to value Grab a more than $3 billion
- The pivotal region of 620 million remains up for grabs
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Grab’s unprecedented fundraising shows how Southeast Asia is fast becoming a central arena in the global campaign to keep Uber Technologies Inc. at bay.
Grab raised $750 million from investors led by SoftBank Group Corp., the largest-ever for a Southeast Asian consumer technology company. That mega-round underscores how Asia’s ride-hailing services from India to Indonesia are arming themselves to fend off Uber now that the aggressive industry goliath has ceded China to Didi Chuxing. It also bumped up its valuation to more than $3 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.