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South-East Asia-based technology firm Grab Holdings Inc on Wednesday said it has secured $1.46 billion (about ₹10,300 crore) in fresh funding from Softbank Vision Fund (SVF).
With this, Grab has so far secured over $4.5 billion (around ₹31,747 crore) in funding in its current Series H financing round, it said in a statement.
Other investors in this round include Toyota Motor Corporation, Oppenheimer Funds, Hyundai Motor Group, Booking Holdings, Microsoft Corporation, Ping An Capital, and Yamaha Motor, it added.
Grab has set up its R&D centre in Bengaluru, housing about 200 engineers, who focus on developing new payment technologies for GrabPay, the company’s digital payments platform. The company is looking at doubling the number in the next 12-18 months.
New opportunities
“SoftBank and the Vision Fund are long-standing strategic investors... The investment is a clear statement of belief in our vision to grow South-East Asia’s technology ecosystem as the region’s No. 1 super-app,” Grab co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan said in the statement.
David Thevenon, Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said the latest investment will help Grab explore exciting new opportunities across on-demand mobility, delivery and financial services across South-East Asia.
Ming Maa, Grab’s President, said the company continues to receive new investor interest, and it looks forward “to welcoming more global industry leaders as partners in 2019”.
The statement said the company plans to expand its verticals such as financial services, food delivery, parcel delivery, content and digital payments, and roll out new services that it announced last year.
Grab also plans to invest a significant portion of fresh proceeds in Indonesia, it added.
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