SINGAPORE, 10 July 2018 – Grab today announced GrabPlatform, as part of its open platform strategy to build Southeast Asia’s first everyday superapp. Grab will add more highly used everyday services to the Grab app, together with best-in-class partners, who can use GrabPlatform to integrate their services with Grab. Partners can expand more efficiently across Southeast Asia by leveraging Grab’s user base and Southeast Asia’s largest distribution channels through GrabPlatform, a suite of APIs that enables partners to access components of Grab’s technology like logistics and payments.

“GrabPlatform amplifies economic value for all of Southeast Asia. Even more than what we could ever create by ourselves,” said Anthony Tan, Group CEO & Co-founder, Grab.

Grab also announced its latest service, GrabFresh, an on-demand grocery delivery service. Available in the Grab app, GrabFresh is a GrabPlatform partner integration with HappyFresh, Southeast Asia’s #1 grocery delivery provider. From this month, Grab expands into the largest category of household expenditure in the region, and takes another step forward to becoming Southeast Asia’s everyday superapp.

The vision of Grab as an everyday superapp comes to life in a refreshed Grab app. Consumers will have a brand new Grab experience where the Grab app provides not only services but also information, relevant to exactly when you need it. Grab’s new home screen features single tap access to payments and easy navigation to all everyday services, complemented by a news feed that helps users discover their city with location reviews and useful seasonal information, such as where the nearest mosques are during Ramadan or even the latest football scores at the World Cup.

The launch of GrabPlatform comes off the back of a milestone year for Grab.

• Grab crossed 2 billion rides on 7 July 2018. It took 5 years and 4 months to hit 1 billion rides, and only less than 9 months to hit the next billion
• Grab will be the first Southeast Asian company to hit revenues of US$1 billion by the end of 2018
• Transport is still rapidly growing, with Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) more than doubling over the last 12 months
• There’s rapid growth in new businesses. GrabFood, which expanded from 2 to 6 countries in Q2, grew 9x in GMV over the last 12 months
• In the span of five months (Jan-May 2018), Grab Financial’s total payment volume more than doubled. It is now the leading mobile payments platform in Southeast Asia  

“Over the past six years, we’ve worked hard to improve our technology and expand our reach. Our assets are well tested through Grab’s own services. We’ve gone from offering our tech as a booking platform for taxi operators, to providing a fleet of delivery drivers for e-commerce companies. It’s now time to take what we’re really good at to a select group of partners – and eventually make our platform open to the wider Southeast Asia ecosystem. With over 100 million mobile installs, a network of 7.1 million drivers, delivery partners, merchants and agents, and strong payments and back-end technology, we are better placed than anyone else in the region to help other start-ups and businesses grow and scale, as we have,” said Anthony Tan, Group CEO & Co-founder, Grab.

Get groceries delivered within an hour with GrabFresh

People already use Grab to commute, get lunch, deliver packages, and pay for shopping. They can skip long checkout lines and buy groceries for their family with GrabFresh.

By partnering with HappyFresh, Grab consumers can enjoy grocery shopping from the comfort of home. As fresh produce and frozen products are common items purchased, GrabExpress drivers and delivery partners can send the groceries to their doorsteps within an hour, or at a pre-arranged and convenient time.

GrabFresh, powered by HappyFresh, offers a value-added service:

• The widest selection of over 100,000 grocery products from over 50 large supermarket chains and specialty grocery chains
• Trained personal shoppers who know how to pick the right items like fresh produce, and can respond to specific instructions. Consumers can reject items that are not satisfactory at the door
• Flexibility and convenience to have groceries delivered to your doorstep, when you want it

“Grocery delivery is a huge opportunity in Southeast Asia. From our research, 70% of grocery delivery app users shop at least once per week, and they like to shop from the stores that they are familiar with. What they want is for their preferred items to be available and ready, when they want it. GrabFresh already has the widest selection of products compared to other grocery delivery services,” said Guillem Segarra, CEO of HappyFresh.

Guillem Segarra added, “Grab is the best possible partner we could have. The large number of couriers that they have allows us to add more delivery slots and improve delivery time. We can also scale and internationalise efficiently. This enables us to focus on our strengths, which is delivery of the best possible customer experience through highly trained personal shoppers.”

GrabFresh will be available as a beta service in Jakarta from this month, and will be available in Thailand and Malaysia by the end of 2018. Other countries will follow.

Grow fast and reach millions of consumers daily with GrabPlatform

Grab will work with partners who are best-in-class in their sectors, offer everyday services most relevant to consumers’ daily lives, and have the potential to offer income opportunities to more micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses.

GrabPlatform is a suite of APIs that give access to components of Grab’s technology including transport, logistics, payments, user authentication, messaging, insights and mapping.

GrabPlatform gives partners access to a combination of core Grab assets that no one else in Southeast Asia can offer, including the largest distribution network of 7.1 million drivers, delivery partners, agents and merchants, a wide Southeast Asia footprint across 225 cities in 8 countries, and a robust suite of technology and products localised for Southeast Asia.

“Southeast Asia is set to be the fourth largest economy by 2050. More people are moving into the middle class, technology infrastructure is catching up, and companies must adapt fast to shifting emerging market opportunities. Combining Grab’s assets with the specialised expertise of our partners will enable both Grab and our partners to grow most efficiently and quickly to serve more Southeast Asian consumers daily,” said Anthony Tan.

GrabPlatform partners can work with Grab in multiple ways to focus on growing their business, while reducing operational complexity.

1. Build into GrabPlatform: Partners can provide more services, such as GrabFresh, powered by HappyFresh, directly to Grab’s users
2. Empower with GrabPlatform: Enable partners to integrate Grab’s suite of technology and products into their own websites or apps. Products that partners can integrate include GrabPay for mobile payments, GrabExpress for logistics, or GrabProfiles for user authentication
3. Engage through GrabPlatform: Partners can actively engage Grab consumers via both Grab’s news feed and GrabRewards loyalty programme through useful content such as reviews and promotions

Grab the Everyday Superapp experience

“Our goal is for one Southeast Asian app to offer all the daily essentials you need, anytime you need it, and even before you know you need it. Grab’s consumers will enjoy amazing new services like shopping, utilities, entertainment and more as part of Southeast Asia’s most useful everyday superapp,” said Jerald Singh, Head of Product at Grab.

In addition to grocery delivery, Grab is also offering ‘Pulsa’, a service to top up your prepaid mobile phone credits in Indonesia.

The Grab app will feature a news feed that makes the app the most localised, useful and informative, when you’re on the go. Featuring news, reviews and entertainment, Grab consumers can read reviews of nearby restaurants or shopping malls, watch curated short films by local producers, or play games. Content will be contextualised for specific occasions, such as what time to break fast during Ramadan, or whether to take a car or bike during the rainy season.

Grab also launched a content partnership with Yahoo. Grab consumers can keep up to date with the latest news at any time in Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines from this month. Other local news partnerships will be announced in other countries soon.

“Yahoo is delighted to partner with Grab across Singapore, Philippines and Malaysia as they re-imagine their homescreen experience for these markets. With a deep understanding of users in the region, Grab has consistently innovated to give consumers exactly what they want. We look forward to this opportunity of informing, entertaining and connecting with an even larger audience, giving users the trusted content they rely on Yahoo for, with the convenience they expect from Grab,” said Rico Chan, Managing Director, Oath INSEA, Hong Kong and Japan.

Ambitious entrepreneurs and businesses can look to be part of GrabPlatform via Grab Ventures: https://ventures.grab.com/.

The new Grab experience will begin to roll out in Singapore and Indonesia on iOS from today, and on Android from 18 July. Other countries will have the new Grab experience by Q3.