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Grab, Uber\u2019s biggest rival in Southeast Asia, has completed its first major acquisition after it acquired Indonesian startup Kudo to boost its nascent mobile payments platform.<\/p>\n
Neither part is giving a figure for the size of the deal,\u00a0which was first rumored in February<\/a>. Initial reports<\/a> at the time suggested Grab would pay over $100 million for Kudo, but two sources close to the company told TechCrunch that price is significantly lower than that but it nonetheless represents a good exit for the company and its investors.<\/p>\n Grab\u2019s only previous acquisition was little-known Chinese ride-sharing startup Youche back in 2013. That deal was done to form Grab\u2019s Beijing office, which is one of it global engineering bases. This time around, Grab is paying bigger money for a much more\u00a0strategic deal.<\/p>\n Grab began working on a payments platform<\/a> \u2014 GrabPay \u2014 last July, with an initial focus on Indonesia. The company recently announced<\/a> plans for an R&D center in India devoted to developing its payment push further, and GrabPay is part of a\u00a0$700 million investment program it recently revealed<\/a> to develop its position in Indonesia.<\/p>\n Grab believes that offering digital payment services can give it a stronger foothold in Southeast Asia\u2019s ride-hailing market, which is forecast to grow from $2.5 billion in 2015 to\u00a0$13.1 billion per year by 2025, according to a report co-authored by Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where it believes\u00a0three-year-old\u00a0Kudo can boost it. The startup\u00a0enables people in Indonesia who don\u2019t own a credit card \u2014 the large majority of the country \u2014 don\u2019t have a\u00a0bank account or even lack internet access, to buy items online. Initially it used point-of-sale kiosks located\u00a0in public areas, but it later broadened its focus to support an agent model. The\u00a0firm claims to have 400,000 agents across 500 towns in Indonesia.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Kudo team will join Grab and the Kudo platform will be integrated with Grab\u2019s existing payments ecosystem. Grab will also support and accelerate the expansion of Kudo\u2019s agent network across Indonesia, and leverage Kudo\u2019s reach to bring more riders, and drivers and GrabPay users onto the Grab platform,\u201d Grab said in a statement.<\/p>\n To cement its push, Grab has also announced that it has brought in a dedicated executive to lead GrabPay.\u00a0Jason Thompson, formerly\u00a0Managing Director EMEA & Asia for Euronet, will head up\u00a0the division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/03\/grab_logo.jpg?w=680\"){kind=logo}
Grab, Uber’s biggest rival in Southeast Asia, has completed its first major acquisition after it acquired Indonesian startup Kudo to boost its nascent mobile payments platform. Neither part is giving a figure for the size of the deal,\u00a0which was first rumored in February. Initial reports at the time suggested Grab would pay over $100 million for Kudo, but two sources close to the… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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