In a heated race to become Southeast Asia’s super-app, Grab Indonesia managing director Ridzki Kramadibrata said the startup is “on good track” towards achieving that goal.
“We are on a good track towards becoming a super-app. We have expanded massively in Indonesia since 2017. From 12 cities in early 2017, our services are now available in 222 cities across the country, spanning Sabang and Merauke. In Indonesia, we offer a wide range of Grab services, from GrabFood to GrabExpress and GrabFresh, and we are adding more all the time,” he told DEALSTREETASIA in an interaction.
Kramdibrata declined to share the market share breakdown of its business by vertical, but claimed that Grab currently leads the ride-hailing market in Indonesia with a 62 per cent share.
“Meanwhile, GrabFood is present in 178 cities to date since it launched in Indonesia in 2016. GrabFood is a big component of our growth plan in 2019 and we will be the #1 food delivery player in Southeast Asia in 2019,” he said.
Meanwhile, its archrival, Indonesia-based Go-Jek, is also said to have secured $920 million from various investors including Google, Tencent and JD.com as part of its ongoing $2-billion funding round to deepen the startup’s presence in new markets and advance its fintech unit. Go-Jek has been busy with its international expansion into Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It also recently made a strategic acquisition by picking a significant stake in Philippines-based e-wallet startup Coins.ph.
On Thursday, Thailand’s retail conglomerate Central Group picked a siginificant non-controlling stake in Grab’s Thai entity for $200 million. The investment is not part of Grab’s ongoing Series H round, for which it is looking to raise $5 billion. So far, it has secured $3 billion from investors including Hyundai, Toyota, Oppenheimer Fund, Microsoft and others.
Edited excerpts of the interview with Grab Indonesia managing director Ridzki Kramadibrata:-
