After acquiring Uber’s Southeast Asia operations early this year, Grab has announced that it has reached an agreement with Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) to strengthen their existing partnership in the development of new mobility technologies.
As part of the agreement, Toyota will invest US$1 billion (RM3.99 billion) in Grab’s new round of financing, making the Japanese carmaker not only the lead investor but also the largest investment made by an automotive manufacturer in the global ride-hailing sector.
The new expansion will see the two companies expand their collaboration in incorporating Grab’s operations onto Toyota’s proprietary mobility services platform (MSPF) – an information database for connected vehicles – and rolling out various connected services throughout the region using the data stored on the Toyota MSPF.
This will help Grab to achieve greater connectivity for its rental car fleet across Southeast Asia while Toyota will be on track to develop innovative mobility solutions such as driving-data-based automotive insurance, financial services and maintenance services for its customers in Southeast Asia. The two companies will also look for future collaborations aimed to achieve more-efficient ride-hailing businesses and for developing future mobility service solutions and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) vehicles.
Co-founder and CEO of Grab, Anthony Tan also commented: “We are thrilled to have Toyota onboard as a long-term, strategic partner of Grab’s. Toyota is an incredible company that has done so much for the world. This strong partnership will enable us to become the one-stop mobility platform in Southeast Asia. We look forward to executing the same vision of the future. A future that will provide for safer and more affordable rides, more liveable cities, and millions of new micro businesses in the digital revolution. We will continue to work with global leaders like Toyota in bringing this vision to pass.”
Grab is currently the leading online-to-offline (O2O) mobile platforms in transportation, food and package delivery, mobile payments and financial services in 217 cities across eight Southeast Asian countries.
Moving forward, key personnel change includes a Toyota executive to be appointed into Grab’s board of director and a dedicated Toyota team member as Grab’s executive officer. Toyota is considering more personnel exchanges in the future.
