Morning Report: Car manufacturer Toyota plans to invest $1 billion in Singapore-based ridesharing company Grab.
Global car manufacturer, Toyota, will invest $1 billion in Southeast Asia’s ridesharing heavyweight Grab, according to CNBC. The capital infusion will bring Grab’s total known funds raised to $5.1 billion, inclusive of a $700 million debt financing round in October 2017 recorded by Crunchbase. The round will bring Grab’s valuation up to $10 billion.
Grab, Southeast Asia’s poster child for big deals in the region, announced that it acquired Uber’s Southeast Asian operations back in March, effectively making it the main ridesharing powerhouse in the region. The company announced last week that it launched an investment arm called Grab Ventures to contribute to the growth of Southeast Asia’s promising, yet underfunded early-stage startup scene. Grab has acquired two startups: Indonesia-based Kudo and India-based iKaaz, according to Crunchbase.
This is not the first time Toyota has invested in Grab. The car company’s trading arm Toyota Tshusho participated in Grab’s $2 billion Series G led by Japan’s Softbank and China’s Didi Chuxing in July 2017. That strategic investment was the beginning of Toyota Motors partnership with Grab. The companies worked to optimize and improve the performance of Toyota vehicles operating on Grab’s platform, according to TechCrunch.
Much like its China-based corporate backer (and ridesharing counterpart), Didi Chuxing, Grab will use its latest $1 billion investment from Toyota to expand into other verticals like food delivery and payments. It will also allow the company to deploy services like user-based insurance, according to CNBC’s report. In any case, the round represents yet another giant raise for the sharing economy, which has been on the receiving end of huge rounds in other industries ranging from scooters to bikes.
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