Grab Indonesia to develop mobile payments, partner with fintech companies: Ridzki Kramadibrata

Grab has recently launched its master plan for Indonesia – one which entails a $700 million investment into the largest economy in Southeast Asia to battle its fiercest competitor, Go-Jek, and the first priority under this will be to build an R&D center with 150 engineers, Ridzki Kramadibrata, the ride-hailing app’s managing director in Indonesia, said in an interaction. With only about 36% of Indonesia’s population being bankable, and a majority of its citizens still using cash, the ride-hailing app, will focus on developing financial technologies in that country, to enable a range of payments via smartphones, he explained, even as he added that the company was open to partnering with both fintech startps as well as banks. He however declined to comment on the market buzz that Grab had reached a deal to acquire Indonesian fintech startup Kudo, that targets consumers with no bank accounts in small towns and cities, helping them to make purchases online through its agents. According to industry executives, the Kudo deal is valued at over $100 million. Edited Excerpts.