Grab unveils open platform strategy to build Southeast Asia’s first everyday Superapp

Grab has just announced GrabPlatform, as part of its open platform strategy to build Southeast Asia’s first everyday superapp. The company is set to add more highly used everyday services to the Grab app, together with best-in-class partners, who can use GrabPlatform to integrate their services with Grab.

Grab is claiming that its partners can expand more efficiently across Southeast Asia by leveraging Grab’s user base and Southeast Asia’s largest distribution channels through GrabPlatform, a suite of APIs that enables partners to access components of Grab’s technology like logistics and payments.

“GrabPlatform amplifies economic value for all of Southeast Asia. Even more than what we could ever create by ourselves,” said Anthony Tan, Group CEO & Co-founder, Grab.

Grab also announced its latest service, GrabFresh, an on-demand grocery delivery service. Available in the Grab app, GrabFresh is a GrabPlatform partner integration with HappyFresh, Southeast Asia’s #1 grocery delivery provider. From this month, Grab expands into the largest category of household expenditure in the region, and takes another step forward to becoming Southeast Asia’s everyday superapp.

Grab’s new home screen features single tap access to payments and easy navigation to all everyday services, complemented by a news feed that helps users discover their city with location reviews and useful seasonal information, such as where the nearest mosques are during Ramadan or even the latest football scores at the World Cup.

The launch of GrabPlatform comes off the back of a milestone year for Grab.

• Grab crossed 2 billion rides on 7 July 2018. It took 5 years and 4 months to hit 1 billion rides, and only less than 9 months to hit the next billion
• Grab will be the first Southeast Asian company to hit revenues of US$1 billion by the end of 2018
• Transport is still rapidly growing, with Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) more than doubling over the last 12 months
• There’s rapid growth in new businesses. GrabFood, which expanded from 2 to 6 countries in Q2, grew 9x in GMV over the last 12 months
• In the span of five months (Jan-May 2018), Grab Financial’s total payment volume more than doubled. It is now the leading mobile payments platform in Southeast Asia

“Over the past six years, we’ve worked hard to improve our technology and expand our reach. Our assets are well tested through Grab’s own services. We’ve gone from offering our tech as a booking platform for taxi operators, to providing a fleet of delivery drivers for e-commerce companies. It’s now time to take what we’re really good at to a select group of partners – and eventually make our platform open to the wider Southeast Asia ecosystem. With over 100 million mobile installs, a network of 7.1 million drivers, delivery partners, merchants and agents, and strong payments and back-end technology, we are better placed than anyone else in the region to help other start-ups and businesses grow and scale, as we have,” said Anthony Tan, Group CEO & Co-founder, Grab.