Grab

Grab operates a superapp for ride-hailing, food and grocery delivery, and financial services such as payments, lending and digital banking across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar. Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling, both Harvard Business School graduates, launched the business as the MyTeksi taxi-booking app in Malaysia in 2012, seeded with a $25,000 Harvard Business School prize and personal capital. It rebranded as Grab in January 2016 and is headquartered in Singapore, where its listed parent is Grab Holdings Ltd.

Grab raised private capital from Series A through Series H. Kee Lock Chua of Vertex Ventures was an early investor, putting in $11.2 million and exiting in 2019. Later backers included SoftBank Group, MUFG, Booking Holdings, Toyota and Microsoft, and Temasek Holdings invested ahead of the move to Singapore. In March 2018 Grab acquired Uber's Southeast Asian operations, and Uber received a 27.5% stake in exchange. On April 13, 2021, Grab announced it would go public by merging with Altimeter Growth Corp., the blank-check company sponsored by Brad Gerstner's Altimeter Capital, at a pro forma equity value of about $39.6 billion. The deal carried more than $4.0 billion of committed PIPE financing led by $750 million from Altimeter funds, with BlackRock, Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley Investment Management), T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Janus Henderson, Mubadala, Nuveen, Permodalan Nasional Berhad and Temasek also participating, and was expected to deliver about $4.5 billion of cash.

Grab began trading on Nasdaq under GRAB in December 2021. Its 2025 annual report shows revenue of $3.37 billion, up from $2.80 billion in 2024, and a profit of $200 million against a $158 million loss the year before. Monthly transacting users averaged 47.2 million in 2025. As of January 31, 2026, Uber held 13.1% of the ordinary shares, SB Investment Advisers 9.8% and Toyota 5.4%, while Anthony Tan controlled about 59.9% of the voting power through Class B shares.

Grab shows how a regional company can draw strategic capital from incumbents. Carmakers, banks and a rival ride-hailer all ended up on its cap table, and Uber's 2018 exit from the region turned a competitor into the largest shareholder. Early venture backers such as Vertex had liquidity before the listing. Altimeter's route, a SPAC paired with a large PIPE, was among the biggest U.S. listings by a Southeast Asian company, and Altimeter committed to a three-year lock-up on its sponsor shares. Investors who came in at the $39.6 billion pro forma value were buying a business that did not report an annual profit until 2025.